Bikie shooting sparks law and order debate

Wounded bikie gang leader Vincenzo Focarelli remains in an Adelaide hospital under close police guard following the attack that killed his son.

Meanwhile across South Australia the debate about law and order is really heating up.

Focarelli, the self-proclaimed leader of the Comanchero outlaw bikie gang, suffered several gunshot wounds in what was a fourth attempt on his life.

The same gunmen shot and killed his 22-year-old son Giovanni.

Sunday's brutal slaying has heightened fears a of bikie war erupting in the city, following a spate of bikie-related shootings, included a gunfight at a popular city restaurant last month.

Police commissioner Mal Hyde has called for tougher sentences, and a war of words has broken out between politicians on how best to deal with bikie violence.

SA Law Society President Ralph Bonig rejected police claims that the courts were too lenient.

"This is nothing more than a populist attack on an easy target, which the statistics show is unjustified," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

Mr Bonig said SA prisoners had the longest median jail term in the country - almost five years per sentence.

SA also had the biggest increase in the country of offenders sentenced to prison terms.

Attorney-General John Rau said the government would re-introduce tough laws - previously blocked by the opposition - to crack down on bikie violence.

He said crime rates were falling and the state had the lowest reoffending rate in the nation, at 19.1 per cent, according to a report from the Productivity Commission.

Meanwhile, Focarelli's lawyer Stacey Carter said her client, who was shot four times and has one bullet lodged in his skull, was undergoing surgery on Tuesday.

"Other than that he is in good health," she told ABC radio.

Tributes to Giovanni were posted on the New Boyz Support Crew Facebook site on Tuesday, including one that described him as a top bloke: "The man was down to earth, kind and wasn't afraid of going up to any woman to have a go."

"I'm going to miss him and I think he deserved better.

A hospital spokesman said Focarelli was in a stable condition.