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.
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By: Dan Ferguson, Staff Reporter (Surrey Leader)
Source: Surrey Leader Website (Article Link)
