Nelson Hunt is not likely to be furnished with a gun permit after he has had his chat with the Premier. That much we can virtually guarantee. But it is evidently clear that recent events have triggered an attitude within right-thinking Bermudians who are now prepared to stick out their chests and say “Enough is enough”.

Some storekeeper who is barely taking enough from the till to make ends meet; some small business owner who is trying to rebound from successive bad sales quarters; someone beginning a new life with a start-up after being made redundant.

Someone will be prepared to look straight down the barrel of a gun when two punks march into their premises, dressed shabbily and wearing the same type of helmets that we had hoped would have been made illegal by now.

Far from tempting fate, the time has come to test the resolve of those who are dead set on taking the easy option while the rest of us are putting in a proper shift — whether at work or attempting to find work.

The crime spree since Boxing Day last year is beyond alarming. That only one conviction has been made from the nine armed robberies before the most recent at Gem Cellar and Hunt’s Food and Supplies — and that of a stumbling, bumbling, 50-year-old with a 7in knife — is even more so.

The incident at Gem Cellar represented a sea change in that Front Street was added to the list of addresses that the criminals have targeted. That the robbery took place in broad daylight, as did that at Hunt’s, spoke to the brazen and perhaps desperate nature of the perpetrators.

But Front Street? The crown jewel in Bermuda’s chamber of commerce? The scene of many a tourist’s postcard? The street that came so alive last October for the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series Bermuda?

If it felt like a slap in the face to those who sell the island to the wider world, they were right to feel that way because that near lunchtime raid last Thursday struck at the heart of the country.

As painful as the acts themselves are the lazy claims that these robberies are heavily linked to a failing economy and rising unemployment levels; they are as easy a target as have been the poor victims of these crimes.

While there may be a degree of credence in the claims, and only a degree, it is disingenuous to suggest that it is those who were unable to find work after beating the pavements for months who are the ones behind these robberies. These criminals were already criminals long before Bermuda went into recession and it is high time that talk radio callers, politicians and various other “enablers” see a spade for what it is — a spade.

Far from taking Bermuda back, which was part of the theme during the labour unrest in March, we need to take our island back from these thugs who threaten to give all of these beautiful 21 square miles a serious black eye.

They steal and terrorise not because they are unemployed; they do so because they are unemployable.

They steal and terrorise not because they are needy; they do so because they are greedy.

They are not the people Bermuda has left behind; they have stayed behind willingly.

They are uneducated because when education came knocking, they kept the door shut.

The onus is now on law enforcement to get it right — in the Legislature, on the streets and in the courts.

There have not been too many parliamentary sessions since it was announced in the Throne Speech last November that legislation would be tabled to bring a ban on dark-tinted and mirrored helmets, so the House of Assembly can be given the benefit of the doubt. But the hope is that in the interim the police are brokering deals with stakeholders to smooth the passage of the as yet unnamed Bill.

Also, business owners can help themselves by being more resolute in refusing entry and service to those who are unwilling to take off their helmets, full-faced or not.

Among the declining social standards of the past ten years is the ill-mannered sight of shop customers approaching the counter with their helmet on — and that is at establishments that already have a no-helmet policy. At any time, it looks bad; just as it would were you to walk through your host’s home with your hat on.

The Hunt’s robbery was committed in the presence of children. That, and the worst-case scenario from that Sunday afternoon in Warwick, should be cause for great disquiet among the community.

The community knows who these terrorists are. It is in their hands to assist the police in bringing them to justice.

As much as we don’t want Nelson Hunt gallivanting around, giving his very own impression of Dirty Harry, enough is enough and these hoodlums’ reign of terror must end.