The Firearms Amendment Act 2010 was passed in the Senate yesterday after it was sent back to the House of Assembly for a minor change.

It was stalled twice after being controversially rushed through the House of Assembly earlier last month.

The amendments 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.

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."

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

It was passed after recommendations were made by the Opposition.

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.

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 but the wording was not changed immediately and sent back to the House.