Guns are being imported in pieces in cargo and are available to rent in Bermuda, according to CrimeStoppers.

Joanne MacPhee, Chairman of CrimeStoppers was speaking after three shootings — one fatal — over the two-day Christmas holiday.

Aquil Richardson, 30, was shot dead while he was sitting on a wall at the corner of Spice Hill Road and Horseshoe Road in Southampton at 9 p.m. on Boxing Day.

A 25-year-old sitting next to him was also shot in the legs, but remains in stable condition at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

The two men were gunned down after Jakai Harford was shot in the Camp Hill area of Southampton at 12.20 a.m. Christmas Day.

Yesterday Ms MacPhee said she did not see the violence ending soon as importing guns is easy and renting is even easier.

She said: "The suggestion has been made and many get through in pieces through shipping cargo."

Ms MacPhee, however, does not blame Customs who she says are very busy and if people shipped the guns in pieces nobody stood a chance.

Once on the island the firearms are rented out.

A year ago The Royal Gazette ran a report, which said the going rate for a gun was $3,000, but that more people were keen to keep the guns and rent rather than sell them.

In August, following the discovery of a stash of Molotov cocktails, swords, machetes and metal pipes by Police, a source told The Royal Gazette in August that these weapons were also about muscle-flexing and empire building.

The stashes of weapons would have to be increased, according to the source, if the gangs wanted a bigger piece of the drug action.

In May three high-powered rifles were stolen from a licensed gun-owner's Warwick home and Police urged all gun-owners to bring their weapons to Warwick camp to make sure no weapons were missing.

Then in June two American tourists were beaten by two gun-wielding burglers, however, the Police said there was no connection between the two incidents.

The case remains unresolved, but Ms MacPhee does not see that changing until the witness protection laws change. She said: "I would certainly be in favor of anything that would make Bermuda safer. Families need to be protected."