VICTORIA — British Columbia is introducing what it says is the first law in Canada restricting the sale and possession of body armour, but it hopes Ottawa and other provinces follow suit.

The law makes illegal possession of bullet-resistant vests liable to fines of up to $10,000 and a maximum six months in jail.

Sales will be restricted to law-enforcement agencies and private security and investigation firms that will have to prove a need and whose employees will face criminal record checks.

Businesses selling the lightweight vests must be licensed and those breaking the law could be fined up to $100,000 and their managers jailed up to six months.

B.C. Solicitor General Kash Heed said the bill fulfills a promise included in Premier Gordon Campbell's law-and-order, seven-point plan last February that featured funding for more police and prosecutors targeting gangs, outlawing armour-plated vehicles, a jail-building program and more enforcement against illegal firearms.

British Columbia -- especially Vancouver and its suburbs -- has been wracked by rising gang violence in recent years, with dozens of deadly shootings this year as gangs fight for control of the drug trade.

Gangsters fearful of being targeted by rivals now routinely wear body armour and police are seeing it even among lower-level thugs involved in the street drug trade.

It's become a required accessory and fosters a "bravado attitude" among gangsters, Heed, a former West Vancouver police chief, said in an interview Tuesday.

Outlawing body armour gives police a chance to take more gangsters off the street, said Sgt. Shinder Kirk of the province's Integrated Gang Task Force.

"It's another tool for law enforcement that will hold individuals who are engaged in a criminal lifestyle accountable for their actions," said Kirk.

The Opposition New Democrats will support the bill, said NDP justice critic Mike Farnworth said.

"I don't see why we wouldn't because it was our idea," he said.

Farnworth said he introduced a similar motion in the legislature last November.

"The government completely dismissed it out of hand, said they would not do this and attacked us for suggesting it," he said.

"They said it was not helpful, this was something that criminals wouldn't listen to and they had more important things to do."

Farnworth claimed two dozen gangsters could have been behind bars already if his motion had been adopted last fall.

Both he and Heed rejected suggestions that gangsters who think nothing of carrying prohibited weapons or large amounts of drugs would be unlikely to cringe at laws barring them from wearing body armour.

"There's significant fines, up to $10,000, which for some people may be significant, and/or incarceration for up to six months," said Heed.

Farnworth pointed out police often stop vehicles with more than one person where the ownership of drugs or illegal guns is in doubt.

"Sometimes if there's two or three, the question around the firearm becomes whose firearm is it," he said. "But if you're wearing body armour it's pretty clear, you've got it on."

Heed said the 15 or so B.C. businesses that carry body armour are not objecting to the new law.

He was not concerned criminals could still go next door to Alberta, across the U.S. border or even onto the Internet to buy it legally.

"If we track it back and the purchase was made outside of province, we'll notify the authorities in that province with respect to that," Heed said.

He said his Alberta counterpart, Fred Lindsay, has expressed interest in the B.C. initiative.

"We're also looking at the federal government. . . in order for them to do something," Heed said.

"But we thought it was important for us to move ahead and not wait for that federal piece of legislation."

Heed said he's not aware of any federal legislation in the pipeline. A spokesman for federal Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan did not respond to a request for comment on the B.C. law.