Guns go for $3,000 on the streets of Bermuda in what is now a seller?s market with owners more keen to rent them out than permanently lose valuable protection.

One well-placed source said renting a hand gun will cost around $1,000.

?Some people have guns and won?t let them go but some who have them see it as a business. The guns usually come in with drug shipments. There are 101 different ways.

?People monitor ? if they see a lot of Police activity at the Airport they use the ports, if they see a lot of activity on the docks they use the Airport.

?Crew members bring in drugs, they also bring in guns.?

And, as with the drugs business, the guns caught at Customs are just a fraction of those on the Island, though sources play down fears that every gang is full of gun-toting hoodlums.

?A lot of them use it for protection, not necessarily to have gun fights. The thinking is if the other guy has got one, I want one.

?There is faction fighting over drugs ? people think someone will come looking for them.

?Only one or two people have the balls to use them. For the vast majority it?s just protection ? don?t mess with me I have a gun.?

One former violent criminal, with close contacts with the criminal underworld, said guns were now priced at $3,000 and have to be specially ordered.

?You can?t just buy one on the streets of Bermuda. Those who have them are keeping them.?

Most are the cheaper brand handguns rather than the glamour names ? but nevertheless capable of wreaking havoc for those in the firing line.

Those caught with a gun face an automatic ten-year sentence in Supreme Court on top of whatever other offences they have done.

Some guns come piece by piece with some seemingly innocent purchase like a home gym where a loose bit of metal won?t look out of place.

The street source said he feared macho pride was driving the violence as gang members aping the gansta rapper lifestyle tried to raise their profile.

?Those trying to make a name for themselves want to take it to a new level. It?s that hip hop, I am a gangsta stuff ? it?s all nonsense.?

But he said aping US gang codes was pointless in a tiny island where no one could hide and everybody was related.

?But just as things have got out of hand very quickly so they can be controlled very quickly.?

Parents and family must condemn rather than condone the would-be thugs in their midst.

?Ninety percent of these guys live with their moms and dads,? the source said.

?It needs mothers to turn in their sons, say you can?t live under my roof with that lifestyle ? stop giving them money to pay fines, stop bailing them out of jail.?

Young women also needed stop encouraging the lifestyle by falling for the bad boy types, said the man.

?Girls like a guy who looks like 50 Cent.?

Investigations into Sunday?s killing are seemingly hamstrung by a lack of co-operation but the ex-con said relations between Bermuda youth and Police were almost irreparably damaged.

?Police are unnecessarily heavy-handed and aggressive,? he said.

However despite recently bloodshed, which has seen five people shot in the last three months, the former prisoner believes fewer than 150 youth are caught up in the hardcore gang life Bermuda-style and far fewer had access to guns.