Garda's unarmed status is threatened, warns McDowell

The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has said the increase in gun crime could put at risk the unarmed status of the Garda.

Speaking after new crime figures revealed a 54 per cent increase in the discharging of firearms between January and March, Mr McDowell said: "If the present trends continued indefinitely the question would arise as to whether it was sustainable to keep our police force unarmed."

The recent rise in gun crime was a cause of "deep concern", particularly in the context of a 6 per cent decrease in headline crime in the first three months of the year.

He added that murder carried a term of life imprisonment, but firearms offences were not treated as seriously.

"There is a very clear pattern at the moment of drugs gangs importing firearms with drugs consignments, both are equally as lethal," Mr McDowell told The Irish Times last night.

"If someone is pumping €500,000 of cocaine or €500,000 of heroin into the State, or is going about collecting their debts using firearms, are they any less culpable than somebody who sticks a knife into a fellow outside a pub?"

If gardaí were armed it would change the nature of the relationship between the force and members of the public, and this would be regrettable.

However, to prevent the necessity for an armed force a clear message must be sent to armed criminals that, if caught with firearms, they would be dealt with severely by the courts. Only long prison sentences would act as a "significant deterrent".

Those framing legislation, as well as the Garda and the courts, had a role to play in changing the current environment to one where a firearms offence was treated as one of the most serious crimes possible. While there had been a 53 per cent increase in the number of robberies of cash and goods in transit between January and March, when added to robberies from institutions the overall figure was down. This was proof that armed raiders who had targeted banks had begun to target cash vans instead.

"These people have simply moved outside," the Minister said. Gardaí were continuing surveillance of one gang suspected of being behind a number of raids on cash vans in the Dublin area.

The Minister added that his officials were already working on plans to introduce legislation providing for tougher sentences for gun crime. He could not "give direction to the judges or make speeches to them all of the time" but new legislation could provide strong guidelines for judges, which could influence them to hand down custodial sentences more often.

There were a number of options open to him on gun-crime sentencing, including amending the Criminal Justice Bill or introducing a separate Small Firearms Bill. The Department was currently considering which would prove the most efficient. A gun amnesty was also being considered.