Growing gang violence puts politicians under the gun By: ctvbc.ca Date: Tuesday Feb. 10, 2009 8:33 AM PT Following a week in Metro Vancouver punctuated by gunfire, the province's top politicians and police are finding themselves under the gun. BC Attorney General Wally Oppal appealed for public help in curbing violence in what police have stopped short of calling a gang war. But there have been six shootings in six days, four of which police believe have drug and/or gang links. Three of those -- including one late Sunday evening -- happened in shopping centre parking lots, two in broad daylight. And four of them were fatal. "We're very concerned, very, very concerned with what's going on," said Oppal, who has had to defend the government's gang strategy. Premier Gordon Campbell, who has been largely silent on the issue, said Monday the government is doing a number of things to counter gangs "but obviously we have to do more." The province has funded additional police officers, helped set up the Integrated Gang Task Force and Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT), and lobbied Ottawa to toughen gun-crime and organized-crime laws, he said. "I think this is just not something any of us ever imagined would take place in Canada," said Campbell, who faces a provincial election in May. "We've got to do whatever we can to stop it." Oppal, a former judge, blamed the violence on rivalry for the lucrative illegal drug trade. "They are fighting for territory," he said. He ...