Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Fort McPherson (June 03/02) - Five people have been charged with improper gun storage in the five months since police in the hamlet introduced a new zero-tolerance policy on enforcing gun laws.

After a busy Christmas season, Fort McPherson RCMP put up public notices and ran radio announcements warning the public to start paying attention to gun laws.

Since January, police have been laying charges whenever they see improperly stored firearms, regardless of the reason they were visiting a home.

"It's tough when people use guns on a regular basis, but the community has been very supportive," says Sgt. Kurt Lozinski.

National regulations require that all gun owners install trigger locks on their guns and store them unloaded in a locked cabinet, separately from ammunition.

Because so many people in the communities rely on guns for their livelihood, police had often been lenient with gun law infractions.