An early morning, bloody shooting spree recently at the Gingur Sky bar in west Edmonton resulted in four being hospitalized, with two in serious condition.
A radio station reported that the bar had a long history of gang violence — this being the l0th violent incident and the eighth shooting at Gingur Sky since 2008 and the second in just over a month.
It is reported the bar is closed for two weeks for investigation. However, with the bar’s record of escaping closures, it’s not a measure of if it would re-open but when it would reopen.
Interestingly, the bar owner made a frantic appearance on TV to state, “Sure, close me down! It wasn’t me that brought the guns in.”
He’s apparently forgotten that a bar owner is responsible for the conduct in and around his bar.
All entering should be frisked for any weaponry. Also, drinks are not to be served to inebriated customers and the drinking age should be strictly enforced.
Seems the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Board and Premier Ed Stelmach share some of the responsibility for violence, as well.
Who can forget that at a crucial time when Edmonton bars were involved in countless stabbings?
Stelmach made a promise to curb such activity with his Cage the Rage campaign. It involved posters being put up in bar rest rooms and liquor stores.
Nice try! Note, there was no mention of curbing nude bar shows, a crux in drunks’ bar attendance.
Yes, governments still want to grab the high markup on the booze sales, which brings in $4 million per day to government coffers, but at a cost to taxpayers of $10 for every one of those dollars to pick up the pieces for the jump in violence and murders, the family breakups, welfare payments, etc., according to the FBI.
Audrey Jensen
Red Deer