A Surrey resident is calling on the province to expedite the issuance of 500 gun licences so residents can protect themselves during the ongoing extortion crisis.
Vikram Bajwa said, “I strongly believe we have to become B.C. vigilante cowboys in order to respond to this violence.”
“(If) somebody calls me and says, ‘Vikram, I need $500,000 if you don’t pay me within one week, I’m gonna kidnap your kid.’ So what am I supposed to tell my kid, don’t go to school, don’t do this? And I tell my wife, you can’t go to the store, you can’t wear any jewelry.”
“We are scared. We can’t go outside and even start the car. We don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said.
Surrey has seen four extortion-related shootings since last Thursday (Jan. 15), and an additional four shootings and 34 reported extortions since the start of the new year.
Bajwa said issuing gun licences would instill a lot of confidence in the community; as of now, he said, there is none.
While they do trust the police, Bajwa said, police are outnumbered by the gangs and residents feel that the current attempts to keep people safe are not working.
“If I get a threat and the police come in and I make a police report, what can they do? They can’t park a car in front of my house 24/7. So what am I supposed to do? I arm myself for that purpose,” he said. “And once this message goes out to these gangsters that I am armed, they will not come to my home.”
This is personal for Bajwa, as some of his friends have been victims of extortion.
He and many of his friends have had to change their daily habits because they are afraid of becoming the next victims of extortion.
“All our social activity has been suspended. I go to Chipotle or Starbucks alone. I don’t call my friends and tell them where I am going, what I am doing, which event we are going to,” he said. “Nobody is inviting anyone.”
Many business owners and their employees in Surrey are living in fear, he said, especially businesses that are making more than half a million a year.
WHY 500 GUN LICENCES?
The number 500 was chosen, Bajwa said, because there are about 1,800 members of the Chamber of Commerce across the Lower Mainland, so “500 is about one-quarter of that, which we would like to apply and build confidence in our community.”
He is asking Premier David Eby to introduce an emergency bill to expedite the issuance of 500 gun licences to Bajwa and others.
Getting a gun permit is “very hard” and can be time-consuming, Bajwa noted. It can take up to 45 days for the possession and acquisition licence to be processed. This includes a mandatory 28-day waiting period for first-time applicants without a valid firearms licence.
Applicants then have to wait to receive the licences in the mail before they can purchase a firearm.
But Baajwa says it can actually take even longer, 90 to 120 days.
“We are talking about building confidence in the community, to build confidence in my home, so that if somebody you know tries to shoot my window, I can point out and shoot in self-defence. If it works in America, why can’t it work in B.C.,” Bajwa said.
The Surrey Now-Leader reached out to the Premier’s office for comment, but the request was forwarded to B.C.’s public safety minister, Nina Krieger.
“Vigilantism is never a solution to these crimes and people should understand that if they choose to use firearms in response to gunfire, they could be subject to police investigation and possible criminal charges,” Krieger said. “We take these extortion threats very seriously, and we are committed to ensuring police have the tools and resources they need to bring those responsible to justice.”
Krieger added that it is the federal, not the provincial, government that is responsible for issuing gun licences.
The Now-Leader has also reached out to the RCMP, which runs the Canadian Firearms Program, for comment.
‘LET POLICE DO THEIR JOB’
At a news conference Tuesday (Jan. 20), RCMP Assistant Commissioner John Brewer was asked by reporters what his message was to residents who want to arm themselves for self-protection.
His answer was, “Don’t.”
“When someone feels that they’re so at risk they have to take the law into their own hands, here’s what I would say to them: Don’t. You’re risking harm to yourself, but to others. Let the police do their job,” he said.
As a police officer, Brewer said, he is trained and responsible for “every single bullet” that leaves his gun.
“That’s my that’s my job, and I’ve been trained to do that. I don’t know if anybody else has been trained to do that,” Brewer said. His message to victims of extortion is to contact their local police jurisdiction, as they are responsible for the victims’ safety.
“But I will tell you that if you have lost faith in the police, that is misguided. The police are out there. They’re doing their job, both locally and provincially and nationally,” he said.
Wade Deisman, a criminologist at University of the Fraser Valley, said the extortion issue needs an “all hands on deck” response from law enforcement, political leaders and the community.
“These kinds of situations can tip over into what we would call a full-blown public safety crisis,” he said. “And a public safety crisis occurs when the public loses confidence in the ability of law enforcement to protect them. This is starting to happen now.”
Deisman cited the example of a shooting where people in a home that was shot at reportedly shot back.
“Some of the people who are being victimized are firing back. They’re arming themselves. And what you have then is a war of all against all,” he said. “And so that’s when the apparatus of law enforcement is no longer trusted or seen to be able to provide for the safety of people. … It will result in that kind of street warfare, gang on gang or gang against citizens, that kind of thing.”
A key piece of the solution, he said, lies within the community’s response.
“It’s the community that plays the lion’s share of the role in producing intelligence that gets crimes solved,” he said. “It’s very rarely those forensic techniques that you see on CSI and those kind of shows. It’s people in the community that have the courage and the wherewithal to come forward.”
About the Author: Anna Burns
I cover breaking news, health care, court, Vancouver Rise FC, Vancouver Goldeneyes and social issues-related topics for the Surrey Now-Leader. anna.burns@surreynowleader.com Follow Anna on Twitter.