| PUBLICATION:
The Province DATE: 2005.05.30 EDITION: Final SECTION: Editorial PAGE: A14 SOURCE: The Province ILLUSTRATION: Photo: "We need a plan of action to get guns off the street." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We need action now to stop the spread of guns used in crimes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There were several hundred people on the 200-block East Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver last Thursday night when a gunman opened fire. Witnesses said they heard as many as 10 shots. One man, the gunman's apparent target, was killed. The miracle is that no one else was injured. But it would not have been the first time an innocent bystander has been cut down in the crossfire of gunplay that is happening all too frequently in the Lower Mainland. Senior police officers know it is only a matter of time before it happens again. It's ironic that, after the millions of dollars spent by the federal government on its much-reviled gun registry, weapons today are seemingly so much more readily available to criminals than ever before. And today's armed criminals aren't packing heat just to look cool. They're trigger-happy. In several recent execution-style slayings, the perpetrators have pumped bullet after bullet into their victims, in cold-blooded displays of calculated murder. It may be fanciful to talk of creating a "gun-free" zone in the Lower Mainland. But we can't just sit back waiting for the next inevitable tragedy. We need an urgent review of guns and crime: where they come from, who's dealing them, who's using them. And we need a plan of action to get guns off the street. If ever there were a need for "zero-tolerance" this, surely, is it. ------------------------------------------------------------------- British Columbia - The Best Place on Earth - Just
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