January 31, 2013Dear Sir,With all the hype in the US about what to do in regards to curbing gun violence, yet a young teen was shot outside a school in Atlanta today, I am left to wonder what is our country to do. For the past few years in this section of The Royal Gazette I, along with others, have warned and predicted successfully how the violent crime in Bermuda is going to escalate. Crime is like a living, albeit evil, creature that will continue to evolve. Before, people here used guns without any ammunition just to scare people into submission, as not many are going to dare question someone that is holding a gun to prove if it is loaded or not. Then actual shootings started to happen but at night and rarely people would be hit. Then the beast known as gun crime evolved and people started being hit with non-life threatening injuries and then eventually lives were lost to gun shots, but at night. These instances started to become more frequent. Now we have people being shot in broad daylight in front of children as was the Good Friday instance a few years ago. We also have double homicides at night — soon this too will be done in daylight. When are Bermudians going to stop protecting their kin? People know exactly who those are involved.Stop protecting them. Would you want justice withheld from you due to another Bermudian protecting their relative that has just murdered your own? Right is right and wrong is wrong no matter how much you love someone. Murder is inexcusable. The crime is going to get worse. We have armed robberies in daylight, soon it will happen right in main stores on Front Street. Can you imagine armed gunmen at 12pm shooting up a Front Street Store? Five years ago I would have said never. Now I say it’s going to happen soon. How long before a young Bermudian decides to open fire within a school? Yes, Bermuda is on the path to our very own Sandy Hook/Columbine incident. It is just a matter of time. Wake up Bermuda. A crack down must be done and it must be swift and harsh.Parents need to stop coddling and making excuses for their delinquent children. Some of your so-called “babies” are cold blood murderers. They were man enough to pick up a gun and take a life, so that means mama and daddy needs to grow up themselves and turn in their children. Again I ask, would these parents not want justice if their little “angels” were murdered in cold blood? Sadly, some who are a lost cause themselves may answer that yes they want justice, but they want “street justice”. These perpetrators of crime must be viewed as terrorists and treated as such. Parents and friends who harbour them need to be severely punished and all assets taken. In regards to gun crime, I for one am willing to allow certain normal civil liberties to be waived. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Politicians need to stop the bickering and stop the “oh my deepest sympathy speech” and get to work. And the public needs to grow up and start doing their part to stop this beast known as gun violence from evolving into a beast so large that we have no hope of ever stopping it.ROBERT DAVIES JRDevonshire