GUNS AND GANGS: THE LURE OF THE GUN

A few weeks ago, Jasbir's wife found a gun in the closet while she
was tidying her teenage son's bedroom.

Jasbir (not his real name) was stunned by the discovery, and even
more upset to learn his son's friends had guns of their own.

The Surrey resident confronted his son, who admitted he owned a gun
and claimed there was nothing unusual about it.

"He said he had one when he was in Grade 12," says the dad.

"And he told me that he knows kids in Grade 8 and 9 who've bought
guns and carry them to school."

Convinced that was an exaggeration, the father confronted some of his
son's friends while they were visiting.

They young men said handguns are easy to get. You just have to know who to ask.

They got them for protection, because most were involved in dealing
pot and other drugs on the street.

"They said they make a lot of money and they don't have to work at
McDonald's," Jasbir says.

"One friend of (my son) is 23, he owns a brand-new Hummer and he has no job."

When Jasbir talked to other parents about his wife's discovery, some
of them told him they've had the same experience.

"They have found guns in their son's room and they don't know what to do."

The majority of illegal weapons in circulation throughout Surrey and
the Lower Mainland are smuggled across the border from the U.S., with
a small percentage obtained by thefts from gun owners and gun shops
in Canada, according to police and customs sources.

The most popular weapons are "easily concealable" handguns, most
often 9-mm semi-automatics, says Const. Shinder Kirk of the regional
Integrated Gang Task Force.

Lately, police have been noticing an increase in the number of
"exotic" weapons being seized, in particular AK-47 assault rifles,
MAC-10 and Uzi submachine guns or "clones" that mimic their look and function.

RCMP Staff Sgt. John Ward estimates 90 to 95 per cent of the guns are
obtained in the United States, stolen or legally purchased south of
the border, then smuggled into Canada, often as payment by American
importers for "B.C. Bud."

"Marijuana goes south and cocaine, guns and money comes north," Ward says.

In its most recent report, Criminal Intelligence Service Canada
reports that most gun smuggling efforts involve between two and five
firearms, though a few shipments of between 10 and 40 firearms have
been discovered.

Figures provided by the Canada Border Services Agency show the number
of handguns seized at B.C. crossings is up about 20 per cent last
year, based on figures showing 130 working handguns seized during the
first 10 months, compared to 130 for all of 2004.

Most police believe only a small percentage of smuggled weapons are
intercepted at the border and that thousands are actually in circulation.

Vancouver Police estimate the smuggled guns sell for between $500 to
$3,000, depending on the quality.

Ward says the number of handgun seizures in the Lower Mainland is up,
but getting the courts to convict owners of illicit guns can be complicated.

"We're seizing lots of guns where we can't lay any charges because we
can't prove ownership," Ward said.

Often, he says a gun will be found under a car seat or tossed in the
bushes, with no one willing to admit ownership.

Last December, for example, three handguns were seized by Delta
Police outside an all-night restaurant in the 8400 block of Scott
Road early on a Sunday morning.

The first two guns were picked up about 1:30 a.m. when police checked
a group of young men in the parking lot, finding one pistol had been
tossed into the bushes while the other was located in a vehicle.

Later the same morning, there was a fight in the same parking lot
that ended when police arrived.

Officers found a third gun concealed behind a newspaper box at the
front of the restaurant.

Just one person, a 22-year-old Surrey man, was charged with being in
possession of a restricted weapon.

It's estimated there are between 30 and 40 South Asian
(Indo-Canadian) gangs in the Lower Mainland.

Most of their members come from middle and upper class families.

In remarks posted on the B.C. Sikh Youth web site
(http://www.bcsikhyouth.com), Harbans Singh Kandola, president of
VIRSA, the Sikh Alliance Against Violence, relates recent
conversations with parents struggling to keep their sons on the
straight and narrow.

"A respectable senior member of our community told me that he asked a
young man why many of our boys are involved in drug trafficking. His
answer was that he only makes $75,000 during the year working as a
truck driver while he can make $100,000 in one (drug smuggling)
trip," Kandola says.

"Another father told me that his 18-year-old son believes that the
people who own big businesses and houses have made the money through
drug trafficking.

"This is the scary mentality of our youth that should concern us most."

Jasbir's efforts to keep his son from a life of crime have not gone well.

His wife turned the gun into police, but recently made a depressing
discovery while cleaning her son's room again.

He's already got another gun.