Just how easy is it to smuggle a gun into Bermuda?

Apparently as easy as filling out a Customs Declaration form.

The Royal Gazette has been told that two guns were allegedly smuggled into the Island several weeks ago by youths who concealed them in suitcases they checked on to a plane in the United States.

On arriving in Bermuda, we understand, the youths - who are said to be teenagers - declared several articles of new clothing they had also purchased during their trip to the US.

They claimed the Customs officers on duty at Bermuda International Airport stopped them and opened their suitcases for a search. The officer allegedly put his hand on the new clothes, which had been placed at the top of the suitcases -and, satisfied all new articles of clothing had been declared, closed the suitcases again without searching underneath the clothes, where paintball and BB guns with enough power to kill a man lay hidden.

When shown photographs of the two weapons, Bermuda Police armourer Stuart Fitzpatrick confirmed the guns are legal in countries like Canada, where a firearm which fires at under 450 feet per second does not even need to be licensed.

Under Bermuda's Firearms Act, however, he said the guns are a prohibited weapon and those caught with them could be treated as though they had been caught with a real firearm. “There is no way to have them here legally - only the Police and the Regiment are allowed firearms,” Mr. Fitzpatrick said.

Specifically, the Firearms Act states that it is legal for Police, Reserve Police, special constables, Police junior cadets, members of the Bermuda Regiment and Regiment junior leaders, members of the volunteer reserve or cadet corps, Her Majesty's armed forces and Bermuda sea cadets to carry firearms which they have been issued for the execution of their duty.

Mr. Fitzpatrick and Assistant Police Commissioner Carleton Adams were unwilling to comment further, saying they did not wish to discourage people from coming forward with evidence about guns - whatever the type - in Bermuda.

They were, however, extremely sceptical about the story of how the guns allegedly came to be found on the Island, saying they believed that if Bermuda Customs officers were going to do a search they would certainly go “a lot further than that”.

Roderic Pearman of Bermuda Customs was unable to be contacted by The Royal Gazette yesterday.

As for whether or not people are allowed to travel around the US with guns in their checked luggage these days: “Absolutely not,” said one US Customs officer. However, he was unable to go into specifics such as the process officers use to screen checked luggage and the difference between carrying a paintball gun and a “real” weapon.

“Real” weapons or otherwise, Mr. Fitzpatrick confirmed the guns could kill a person, depending on where they hit. “If it hit in the eye. If somebody got hit in the temple a blood clot could form and they could die.”

The guns are not even the most powerful of the guns the teens smuggled in from the US, according to sources.

In fact, the youths were allegedly disappointed when they tested one especially powerful pellet gun by firing it at a row of plastic bottles. They thought they were missing their target completely - it was only on closer inspection that they realised the gun had fired cartridges right through the bottles so cleanly the bottles did not even fall down on impact.

The guns are refillable using compressors or pressure cartridges, such as the carbon dioxide cartridges which are sometimes used to clean computer equipment - easy to get hold of in Bermuda. The Crosman BB gun, in fact, is one of the most common guns found in Bermuda, according to Mr. Fitzpatrick.

Under the Firearms Act, any person using a firearm while committing or attempting to commit an indictable offence could be sent to prison for anywhere between ten and twenty years.