Taxi drivers are up in arms over recent attacks on their fellow drivers.

And they have called for protection when they are on the road, especially at night, or they have vowed to protect themselves.

Driver Burnell Swan told The Royal Gazette : "Taxi drivers should be allowed to protect themselves. I don't know, however, if they should use weapons. The robberies happen about once a week. They (the offenders) need to be punished.'' The drivers were commenting after a fellow driver was fined $150 for carrying a stun gun in his vehicle.

Stefon Marvin Somersall, of Marsh Lane, Pembroke, pleaded guilty in Magistrates' Court on Wednesday to carrying an illegal weapon in his vehicle.

Somersall admitted he owned the stun gun, but denied that he knew that it was prohibited.

Somersall also said he had purchased the gun through the Bermuda Regiment -- a claim the Regiment vehemently denied yesterday.

Mr. Swan added: "They want to rehabilitate them, but ... if punishment is placed second, it is not going to work. I don't think it should be a cat-o-nine tails, but I think there should be some punishment. By punishment I mean being locked up. That is the first and most important form of punishment.

I don't carry weapons, but I won't sit still and be robbed.'' But Neville Darrell, division president of the Bermuda Taxi Owners Association, said: "Carrying a stun gun is not the answer.'' He disclosed that the association was "reviewing ways to make the driver more secure''.

Cabbie Gerald W. Bean said he had already taken steps to protect himself: "I have a three-inch box cutter, and I will use it to protect myself, especially at night.'' And Leon Stevens said: "We've got to protect ourselves. It's a must. Police can carry whatever they have, why can't taxi drivers carry the same thing. I study martial arts and keep my Nonchucka (martial arts weapon) and a golf club in the cab for protection. We need something to protect ourselves.'' Driver Lloyd Simmons said drivers were not going out at night for fear of being attacked.

"Some of these cab drivers don't pick up the locals during the day when the ships are in. I think that the ones that are robbed at night don't usually come out at night.'' Noting he believed that many of the attacks on taxi drivers were drug related, he added: "There is no law to protect the taxi drivers. They (Police) don't control the roads like they should, that's why a lot of robberies happen. A taxi driver needs a weapon of some sort.'' But another driver, Keio Wilson, disagreed: "I wouldn't say they (taxi drivers) should use weapons.

Drivers take up weapons "They would incriminate themselves. They would be going backward, paying the courts money they would have lost to the robbers.'' Bermuda Regiment Adjutant Major Edward Lamb denied that Somersall obtained his weapon from the Warwick Camp facility.

"The Bermuda Regiment does not keep stun guns,'' he said. "And there is no way he could have acquired one through the Regiment. It is true that he was a soldier in the Regiment once.

"He may have acquired one from someone who had also been a soldier in the Regiment. But we have never sold such weapons to the general public and we never will. We want to assure the public that this is not what we engage in.

These assertions are erroneous and without foundation.'' Major Edward Lamb CRIME CRM