Attacks with machetes and baseball bats should carry the same penalties as those with guns. The call was made by United Bermuda Party Senator Maxwell Burgess and received muted backing from Home Affairs and Public Safety Minister Paula Cox.

Sen. Burgess said: "These weapons are just as lethal as a guns.

"There's sufficient evidence that these two items are being used in a spate of personal crime.

"If we let this get out of hand it doesn't bode well for the Bermuda we want to live in.

"I know someone hurt in a baseball bat attack. I don't want to see these things happen to people I know who are blameless.

"If you want a machete to control your own garden that's OK, but if you take it beyond that and try to use it on another human being...Attackers using these weapons should be dealt with as if they were handling guns. It's unacceptable and we should say we are not going to tolerate it.'' Under current law, first time offenders convicted of a firearms offence in Supreme Court are hit with a minimum five years in jail but could be put away for up to 15. Second time offenders face a minimum ten year stretch but could be jailed for 20 while offenders in Magistrates' Court are hit with a two-year sentence and/or a $5,000 fine.

Sen. Burgess said he was speaking in a personal capacity and was now lobbying UBP colleagues to get behind the move to clamp down on what he described as "the weapons of choice''.

"The Government should come forward as quickly as possible to deal with the threat of lawlessness,'' said Sen. Burgess. "We have tolerated for far too long this slide toward senseless and cowardly behaviour.

"People shouldn't walk around worried they might tread on someone's toes and then be beaten upside their head.

"When I was younger, people might fight and it was a case of putting up your dukes and the last fellow standing won the fight.

"But today if you talk to one fellow then it ends up with six or seven fellows with machetes. It's cowardly to beat a defenceless person with a baseball bat or machete.

Home Affairs and Public Safety Minister Paula Cox said of the possible law change: "I think it's something which could be considered but I don't think it's something we can have a knee jerk reaction to. I don't know what the position is on these weapons off the top of my head.

"There may already be sufficient purview for this within the current law.'' She advised Sen. Burgess to put his suggestions to the Attorney General's Chambers and to the Minister for Legislative Affairs.

"I don't just want to respond to what Sen. Burgess is saying. He should put it through the proper channels.'' An official Police spokesman refused to comment on whether the law should be changed. The spokesman said: "That's a Magistrate's thing.'' A `CATALOGUE OF HORRORS' `A catalogue of horrors' Police Media Relations Department were unable to provide details about the number of machete and baseball bat attacks over the past year. But a search through The Royal Gazette's cuttings reveals this catalogue of horrors: Baseball bat attacks: July 21, 1999 -- A 21-year-old Warwick man is rushed to hospital with head wounds and broken arm after being set upon by two men on Friswell's Road.

February 29, 2000 -- A man suffers head and face injuries after gang bat attack.

May 30, 2000 -- A Paget man loses his sight in one eye after metal baseball bat attack outside the Spinning Wheel.

Machetes: September 18, 1999 -- A man is beaten with a machete near playground.

December 9, 1999 -- A driver is struck in hand by a machete wielding man.

December 13, 1999 -- A man suffers head and arm wounds in machete attack.

March 8, 2000 -- Jermaine Pitcher butchered to death by men wielding machetes outside Champions Night Club.

April 5, 2000 -- Gang armed with machetes, sticks beat man outside a club.

May 31, 2000 -- A woman wounded with machete in Glebe Road.