Concerns and suggestions were made by the Opposition when the House of Assembly went into committee last night over the Criminal Code Amendment Act 2005. called the part of the amended Act involving offensive weapons ?draconian?.

The amendment gives Police the right to to enter schools, or stop and search anyone in a public place without a warrant in search of offensive weapons, he said, as well as the fact that sentences of between five and seven years would be mandatory ? even if it involved teenagers.

Mr. Moniz said he was concerned that anyone caught with an offensive weapon ? which according to the amended Act is any article made, or adapted for use for causing injury or incapacitating a person, or intended by the person having it with him for such use by him or by some other person ? including pocket knives carried by most Boy Scouts and knives or spears carried and used by most of Bermuda?s fishermen would now face a mandatory sentence.

He asked what would happen when a school pupil was arrested with a pocket knife.

?Will you send them to jail for five or seven years?? he asked.

Mr. Moniz said he believed in law and order, but also believed that magistrates and judges had the right to use discretion in sentencing and under the new Criminal Code Amendment Act, they would not longer be able to suspend a sentence.

He said he was concerned that anyone arrested for being in possession of an offensive weapon would no longer have the right to chose a trial by jury in the Supreme Court.

?It?s in our constitution!? he said.

These sentiments were echoed by said, when we are dealing with a serious challenge as they are dealing with current conditions in Bermuda, you do find that you incur on the ordinary privileges and rights that used to pertain under the Constitution.

?We have increased the sentencing power of magistrates over the current period considerably and we?ve raised the capacity of magistrates to impose sentences that pertain to Supreme Court level.

?This was done for good reasons, related to better administration of justice including the reduction of clogging the Supreme Court with backlogs of criminal cases by extending the jurisdiction of the Magistrates Court in terms of sentencing powers, imprisonment and fines. This has been achieved so that matters that were forced to go to Supreme Court can now be held before a Magistrate,? he said.

Mr. Scott added that when the response due to circumstances in our society requires legislation for mandatory provisions or sentences, that it has been the policy of the Government to address, with a clear deterrent message, that anyone carrying weapons in schools where the blade exceeds three inches, they will face a mandatory imprisonment.

?When you have these kinds of conditions in our modern society, the response must be a modern and adequate response to the extent that begins to remove previously held rights ? whether under the constitution or under the ordinary embodiment of our legislation ? it is the nature of the response.?