The Firearm Amendment Act 2010 will return to the House of Assembly after the Attorney General made one minor change.

It is the second time this legislation will be stalled after being controversially rushed through Parliament.

The amendments passed in the House of Assembly in June will give Police the power to detain gun suspects for a month without charge.

Police previously had 72 hours to charge or release those arrested for firearms or ammunition offences — but now they can apply for a warrant of detention to hold them for an extra 14 days and make a second application for a further 14-day extension.

Opposition Members of Parliament expressed concern that aspects of the bill went to far and put forward various changes, which Government took on board.

The legislation was tabled during the last week of May and up for debate just seven days later, Opposition MPs claimed they did not have enough notice to debate the complicated legislation. But Sen. Wilson insisted at the time: "We are going through extraordinary times and therefore we have to make haste."

After amendments recommended by Opposition parties were adopted it was passed in the House.

However, it was not immediately tabled in the Upper Chamber because the Home Affairs Minister David Burch decided the Senate did not need to sit the following week.

This meant it could not have been approved until yesterday. Then yesterday Sen. Wilson flagged up a portion of the legislation that was overlooked in the House.

It must now return to the Lower Chamber before coming back again to the Upper Chamber.

In June Bermuda Democratic Alliance MP Mark Pettingill urged the House to amend the legislation so officers applying for the lengthy warrants of detention will have to swear an affidavit.

The initial draft of the bill required Police to support their application with "an information" but Mr. Pettingill said that term was inappropriate and didn't provide strong enough grounds to justify as significant a measure as holding a person for more than 72 hours.

Instead he recommended they be required to swear an affidavit. The Government agreed to do this.

However, when the MPs agreed to change the wording from "information" to "affidavit" they failed to do so in one instance on page 12 of the legislation.

Yesterday, Sen Wilson corrected the oversight, but now that amendment will have to get the OK from the Lower Chamber before returning to the Senate.

All legislation and amendments must be first passed in the House of Assembly before Senators can sign off on it.

Senate Opposition Leader Michael Dunkley complimented the Attorney General on working hard to pass legislation to deal with Bermuda's soaring gun crime.

He added that it was encouraging to see the three political parties working together to amend, and improve, the legislation in the Lower Chamber.

Senator David Burch, who is the Minister responsible for the Bermuda Police Service, told his colleagues that the Police appreciated the amendments as it will help them do their job.

Stentors Walton Brown, Suzann Roberts-Holshouser, Thaao Dill, Marc Bean and Jeanne Atherden said they believed legislation would help in the fight against gang violence.