Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith has re­vealed that there are “over 50 shoot­ers, linked to var­i­ous gangs” in this coun­try who are re­spon­si­ble for the “sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of homi­cides, via gang ac­tiv­i­ty.”

In a state­ment re­leased to the me­dia on Mon­day, the Com­mis­sion­er said this is the rea­son why the Bail Amend­ment Bill is a “crit­i­cal tool” in be­ing a strong de­ter­rent and en­sur­ing that when crim­i­nals are held they re­main be­hind bars.

At present, the bill is sched­uled to come up on the agen­da in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Par­lia­ment.

The Sen­ate, passed the bill ear­li­er this year.

The bill seeks to pre­vent an ac­cused who is caught with a firearm from be­ing giv­en bail.

The Com­mis­sion­er said yes­ter­day in­tel­li­gence agen­cies have re­vealed that the 50 plus shoot­ers are ac­tive and their pur­pose is to “take out hits on op­pos­ing gang mem­bers”.

Ac­cord­ing to the Com­mis­sion­er, in the last decade, over 75 per cent of homi­cides were car­ried out by per­sons with il­le­gal firearms in this coun­try, and most by a se­lect few.

He added, at present any­one who is ap­pre­hend­ed with a firearm, could be re­leased on bail and be free to pos­si­bly as­sas­si­nate the same per­son who was the in­for­mant that caused their ini­tial ar­rest.

He said this “im­prop­er sys­tem” has proven to be a li­a­bil­i­ty in get­ting law-abid­ing cit­i­zens to come for­ward and pin­point pos­si­ble shoot­ers with il­le­gal weapons.

Com­mis­sion­er Grif­fith re­mind­ed that a killer has the ca­pac­i­ty and ca­pa­bil­i­ty to kill dozens of per­sons in cold blood with just one mag­a­zine.

He said this is why some­one who has been ar­rest­ed for pos­ses­sion of an il­le­gal firearm must not be grant­ed bail.

He said pos­ses­sion of an il­le­gal firearm is enough for some­one to lose their free­dom and have bail re­strict­ed for 120 days.

The Com­mis­sion­er said once this ap­proach is im­ple­ment­ed it will take the guns away from crim­i­nals and get po­ten­tial cold-blood­ed mur­der­ers, off the streets.