MORE GUNS ON STREETS WORRYING POLICE

Gunplay on city streets is almost a daily occurence in Vancouver, with
more and more guns being seized by police. Now, a special team is
being formed to fight the frightening trend as fears grow that more
innocent bystanders could be caught in the crossfire

Police are alarmed about a big increase in guns on our streets and
worry the public are increasingly at risk. Late 2003 and early '04
have seen an "alarming" and "significant spike" in the amount of gun
play on our streets, says Insp. Kash Heed, a 25-year-veteran of the
Vancouver Police Department and the commanding officer of the city's
southeast sector, where a string of shootings in recent weeks has left
the public rattled and justifiably concerned about criminal crossfire,
which exits today's high-calibre, semi-automatic handguns at three
rounds per second.

"We are starting to get some intelligence as to who is in possession
of these guns and we are targeting them," says Heed. "But it is
increasing at an alarming rate here in Vancouver . . . and across the
Lower Mainland."

In 2002, 41 crime guns were seized by the VPD. In the first 10 months
of 2003 (the latest statistics), 45 such weapons were seized.

Shots-fired calls --10-57s in police parlance -- are almost a daily
occurrence in Vancouver. The department announced Wednesday the
formation of a new "firearms interdiction team" to get these weapons
off our streets. Increased gun play is not a question of perception,
it's the new reality. A frightening reality that transcends municipal
boundaries.

Indeed, in just the past two months, bullets have flown through the
suburban streets of Abbotsford, Maple Ridge, Surrey and Richmond.
Abbotsford has experienced two serious incidents, one in a nightclub,
the other on a downtown street.

Two weeks ago, a man was slain running across one of the city's
busiest streets, on Boundary Road, in the middle of rush hour. Less
than 24 hours later, another man was gunned down in Richmond and his
car plowed dangerously into a house. Two months ago in Gastown,
innocent bystander Rachel Davis was killed outside a nightclub trying
to help a man who was being beaten to death.

When Abbotsford Police Const. Shinder Kirk entered policing in 1991,
the weapons of choice were clubs and knives. Today, he and his fellow
officers arrive at a crime call looking first for guns.

"We have seen a proliferation in the number of firearms being carried
and used by any manner of the criminal element," says Kirk. "It's
absolutely a concern for us."

Clubs and knives, explains Kirk, are discriminate weapons. Guns are
not.

"When a bullet or a number of bullets is discharged, not only do the
intended victims get hit, but you don't know where the other bullets
are going to go," he says. "And that's a serious public safety issue."

These weapons, typically compact, semi-automatic handguns created for
a singular purpose and designed to exude machismo and menace, arrive
on our streets almost exclusively from the U.S. Nine out of 10 of the
Lower Mainland's crime guns come from the States, six of those from
Washington state, where a citizen with a valid driver's licence can
legally buy 600 guns a year, if so inclined, and resell them without
paperwork.

"It is driven by the drug trade," says Victoria police Insp. Bill
Carver, western operations manager of the National Weapons Enforcement
Team, which assists front-line police in tracking crime guns and
removing them from our streets.

"The marijuana goes down, the cocaine and the guns come back," he
says. "That's the reality."

The black-market guns are bought with dope, or with $300 to $900 in
cash, depending on the "desirability" of the weapon. Typically, they
cross the border in "ones, twos or threes," says Carver.

"It's like any other commodity," adds Const. Alex Borden, a member of
the RCMP's Border Integrity Unit. "If people want it badly enough,
there'll be somebody there to supply it . . . they make a deal, it's a
simple as that."

While the Canada-U.S. border was fortified post-9/11, and north-south
integrated enforcement units created to police it, a massive flow of
people, vehicles and commerce moves back and forth each day. Locating
individual handguns embedded in that flow is like finding a cork as it
rushes down the Fraser River in high spring.

"These people are so driven by the profit margin they can make from
the sale of drugs or guns, they'll find unique ways to transport their
guns or drugs," says Heed. "No matter what we do, or the American
officials do, the transportation of these goods seems to make it across."

The fact our streets are being increasingly flooded with illegal, U.S.
sidearms is disturbing enough. But police are also gravely concerned
with the type of weapons finding their way into the Lower Mainland.

"We used to see the sawed-off shotguns, the sawed-off rifles," says
Carver. "But what we're seeing now are the high-quality, high-calibre,
semi-automatic handguns with high-capacity magazines, and the
submachine guns. They're status guns used to enhance and protect
criminal empires and criminal activity."

The 9-mm Glock is the most hated weapon among police and the most
popular among criminals.

"It's extremely common, very, very popular," says Carver. "You can
shoot 12, 15, 18 rounds depending on the type of gun. And the
semi-automatic guns like the Tek-9, the Sigs, the Smith & Wessons, the
Berettas, those are the kind of guns we don't want to see because you
can shoot a lot of bullets in a really short amount of time."

Additionally, these weapons are falling into the hands of younger and
younger criminals, immature young men who will brandish and fire a
handgun at the slightest provocation.

"Relatively minor arguments immediately escalate from a verbal
conflict, past the physical conflict, right into the use of firearms,"
says Carver. "That's a huge issue for us. We see people getting caught
in the crossfire. Case in point, the young lady [23-year-old Davis]
shot and killed out in front of the Purple Onion."

Heed, agrees, it's as much about drug turf and trade as it is about
the so-called "gangsta" image.

"These people feel it's the bravado thing to do, to carry a gun," he
says.

"The criminal element in possession of these guns seems to get this
testosterone surge when they have these guns in their hands. You don't
like the fact that someone looked at you funny . . . you display your
gun and in all likelihood you fire it."

What are police doing about the increasing gang-related gunplay on our
streets? In short, as much as they can.

Vigilance. Co-ordinated intelligence. Assertive enforcement. Tracing,
tracking and prosecuting. These are words police use to describe their
efforts to quiet the crossfire.

Quite obviously, more is required. The collateral human damage to date
has been limited. To date.

Should we stay behind closed doors and alter the way we lead our
lives? Of course not. But as a well-adjusted, compassionate society
comprised of level-headed individuals, it is time we asked ourselves
some uncomfortable questions before the inner-city American experience
comes north to roost.

Do we demand automatic and unwavering five-or 10-year penalties be
tacked on to sentences for crimes committed with firearms? Perhaps.

Do we remove organized crime and its requisite violence from the
marijuana equation by decriminalizing cannabis? Maybe.

But in the meantime, we should throw as many resources as we can at
these young men before they grow up too soon into tomorrow's gunplay
gang-bangers.