WHEN K. Veerappan stopped his car at a traffic light in Georgetown, the old centre of Penang, it was the opportunity his killer had been waiting for. He came up alongside on August 8th and pumped at least ten bullets into Mr Veerappan, killing him instantly.

The murder has shocked Malaysians. It was brazen—happening in broad daylight in the middle of one of the country’s main tourist spots. And it was only one of a trio of Penang shootings. On the same day that Mr Veerappan was killed, a house was sprayed with bullets, though no one was hurt. The following day a nightclub bouncer was shot, though he survived.

Malaysia, typically peaceable, is in the middle of an unusual wave of violence. In Penang alone, 19 shootings have taken place this year. Across Malaysia 38 cases of assault or murder involving firearms were reported in the four months to July, nearly as many as for the whole of 2012.

Some of the victims had links to the underworld, suggesting a turf war over control of the drug trade and other illegal activities. Mr Veerappan, for instance, was a convicted drug-dealer and is said to have been a member of “Gang 36”, a notorious outfit. The wounded bouncer is said to belong to another gang.

Other victims, however, seem to have had no links to organised crime. The most prominent casualty was Hussain Ahmad Najadi, the Iranian-born founder of the Arab-Malaysian Development Bank. Respected by many, he was shot in Kuala Lumpur, the capital, on July 29th. Perhaps he was targeted for trying to stop the demolition, to make way for development, of the Chinese temple from which he had just emerged.

The police attribute the rise in violence to the repeal in 2011 of the colonial-era Emergency Ordinance. It allowed for the release of 2,600 former detainees, many of them hardened gangsters, back onto the streets last year. But perhaps this is more an excuse than a reason. Tony Pua, an opposition MP, points out that the last time crime peaked was in 2009, when the ordinance was still in force.

Steven Sim, head of the Penang Institute, a think-tank, says the rise in violence has more to do with the allocation of police resources away from fighting crime. And although Malaysia has strict gun laws, they are poorly enforced, with few prosecutions. The criminals are all the bolder.