OUR COURTS MUST PUT GUN-HAPPY GANGSTERS AWAY FOR A LONG TIME

As if last week's wild shootout with semi-automatic weapons in a
Richmond park wasn't bad enough, police now are warning that the
gunplay, in which up to 150 bullets were fired, may be the start of a
whole new round of gang violence.

And the central theme in all this disgraceful behaviour, as Sgt.
Shinder Kirk of the Integrated Gang Task Force points out, is the drug
trade.

So what should we do about it?

Well, for starters we should not look to surveillance cameras or
national gun registries to do much about the problem.

Spy cameras can't be everywhere, and young hoodlums don't tend to
register their weapons.

Besides, why should a small minority of trigger-happy thugs cause
regular, law-abiding, taxpaying folk to lose their hard-fought freedoms?

No, the answer lies in preventing and/or controlling the appalling
conduct of these kinds of young criminals, who think they can do what
they please.

They laugh at the law because they know the likelihood is that, even
if they are charged with a serious crime, the worst some soft-hearted
B.C. judge is going to do is whack them with a feather and turn them
loose again.

Our courts must stop pussyfooting around and put some of these punks
away for a long stretch -- if only to set an example to others who may
think of aping their behaviour.