DRIVE-BY SHOOTINGS: UNWELCOME NEWCOMER

A recent series of drive-by shootings in Cape Girardeau has added yet another wrinkle to the complex fabric of mindless criminal activity that occupies both law-enforcement agencies and newspaper headlines.

Until last week, there had been no occasion here to file charges under a Missouri law passed in 1995 that gives prosecutors more clout when shots are fired from a vehicle at another vehicle, building or person.

The incident that set these charges in motion involved shots fired from a passing vehicle into a house on Good Hope Street. A 10-year-old girl inside the house -- clearly not the target of the shooters -- was shot in the foot. Three Sikeston men were subsequently arrested and charged in connection with this shooting.

In what appeared to be a potentially deadly feud between relatives of the young shooting victim and friends or relatives of the three men who were arrested, two shooting sprees erupted last week in Cape Girardeau. In both instances, shots were fired from one vehicle at another. Five men -- three from Cape Girardeau and two from Sikeston -- have been arrested in connection with these incidents.

All five of the Sikeston men -- three believed to have been involved in the shooting that injured the girl and two believed to be involved in the later exchanges of gunfire on city streets -- have been charged under the drive-by shooting law.

Just as other serious crimes have appeared on the scene locally -- the high incidence of methamphetamine production comes immediately to mind -- the advent of drive-by shootings is not a welcome newcomer. For the most part, drive-by shootings have been urban crimes, although in the past year small towns around Missouri have experienced their first-ever gang-related shootings -- another criminal activity that seems to be spreading farther and farther from the big cities.

The worst part of drive-by shootings is that the victims of this senseless activity are too often innocent children or adults who have the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Regard for human life is so low among those who ride in an automobile and fire indiscriminately toward houses, people and other cars that there is little to be done in the way of protection or self-preservation.

Local law-enforcement agencies and prosecutors are to be commended for their swift and stern handling of this latest rash of crime. Eight young men are behind bars as a result. If the evidence is sufficient to prove the guilt of those eight men, let's hope the local judges will be just as swift and stern in their punishment.