Convicted gangsters could be sent overseas to jail under proposed new measures for tackling what Police Commissioner Michael DeSilva last night called a “form of domestic terrorism”.He told a public meeting attended by several hundred people at the Devonshire Seventh-day Adventist Church that those shooting to kill in Bermuda could be likened to terrorists because of the devastating impact of their behaviour on people’s lives and the economy.And National Security Minister Wayne Perinchief gave details of proposals he will put before Cabinet for dealing with the Island’s worsening gun crime problem, including:lIncarcerating “hardcore gang members” in other jurisdictions;lImposing stiffer sentences for gun possession;lConsecutive, rather than concurrent, prison terms for multiple offences; andl Banning dark visors on motorcycle helmets.Mr Perinchief, speaking just days after 22-year-old Regiment corporal Jason Smith was murdered in Pembroke, said the gang situation seemed to have entered a second “wave” where innocent people were dying.“We are now seeing a different type of victim being targeted,” he said. “The first wave at least had some logic to it. You could see who the victims were, who the perpetrators were.“But recently we have seen a new phenomenon. People who are victims who seem to be peripherally connected or not connected at all.”Mr DeSilva pinpointed the fatal shooting of Kenwandee “Wheels” Robinson on May 22, 2009, as the start of a period of intense gang warfare which has since seen 15 more men killed.He said police had handled 60 investigations for murder and attempted murder since that date and 85 percent of officers had been deployed to police stations or CID to tackle crime.The Commissioner warned the public that with such a heavy caseload, policing priorities had to change. He said motorists involved in damage-only collisions, for example, should no longer expect a uniformed officer to attend.“Nobody is hurt and that’s what your insurance is for,” he said, adding that if a choice had to be made, patrolling troubled neighbourhoods to make them safer would come first.Mr DeSilva was asked by PLP MP Lovitta Foggo what action citizens could take to be safe.“Don’t disrupt your lifestyle,” he replied. “If you disrupt your lifestyle, you feed into the psyche of why it has become a problem. You are what you think. If we as a community think it’s all over, then it’s all over.”He said if the community believed there was a solution, it would find one. “Whatever we decide to think, will be the outcome of this problem,” he added.He told the public that, on a more practical level, there were three elements needed to address the issue:l “front end” tactics, such as educating young people to ensure they don’t join gangs;l giving information to police to help them catch and convict criminals;l “back end” solutions to rehabilitate offenders and provide new opportunities for those trapped in gang life.“If you believe that principle, if you are not doing something in one of those three areas, you are not helping this problem,” the Commissioner said.“If all you can do is open your home to some of the neighbourhood boys so they have got somewhere to be rather than the street corner, start there.”Mr Perinchief was asked what deterrents were being put in place to stop gang activity.The Minister replied that there were two types of criminals: those who could be rehabilitated and those committing “wanton murder, premeditated murder”.The latter would strike repeatedly, Mr Perinchief said, adding: “While I believe in rehabilitation, I believe punishment should come before rehabilitation. With that in view, I will be proposing to my Cabinet that we consider incarcerating hardcore gang members in another jurisdiction.”He suggested there were less than a dozen guns in Bermuda but said criminals had ingenious ways of importing them, including embedded in concrete and steel.Mr DeSilva said police did not know the number of guns here but knew that single weapons were being used in multiple crimes.He said 9,500 stop and searches in 2010 hadn’t led to a single firearm recovery but had sent a powerful message to gang members.New tougher policing powers, including the ability to search several homes with a single warrant, would be more effective, he added.Community activist Carlton Simmons contradicted Mr Perinchief’s estimate of the number of guns on the Island’s streets. “The situation is dire,” he warned. “There are a lot more guns that you think there are.”Mr Simmons said he recently spoke to a man who had seen a 22-year-old in possession of eight guns.“There’s a lot going on in this country that the majority of people just don’t get. I feel sorry for the Commissioner because some stuff he knows but just can’t reveal.“The situation is a lot worse. There’s a level of conversation that needs to be had where older people listen to younger people.”He proposed another town hall meeting, specifically for Bermuda’s youth, and Bermuda Police Service spokesman Dwayne Caines, who moderated last night’s event, said the idea had merit.Members of the public had a raft of suggestions for how gang crime could be stamped out. A 29-year-old man said it started in schools and proposed that students involved in such activity be interrogated by detectives, rather than just school counsellors.Another man said the Regiment could offer a lot of assistance by being used to “saturate” problem areas and a third man suggested soldiers be used to patrol the waters, an idea Mr DeSilva said could materialise.l Useful websites: www.bps.bm, www.crimestoppers.bm, bermudaregiment.bm