Gun amnesty planned after spate of shootings
A nationwide gun amnesty is to be held in the autumn, it was confirmed today after a spate of shootings in Dublin left five people injured.
Plans for the move were revealed as three men and two women, including a suspected Dublin crime lord, were recovering following gun attacks in Clondalkin, Tallaght and Finglas.
Several would-be assassins used shotguns and handguns in drive-by shootings and an attack on a home.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said plans were being finalised for the amnesty but it would only be held when gardaí were prepared for it.
“It’s based on the Garda Commissioner (Noel Conroy) having looked at the Criminal Justice Bill provisions and having looked at how they will be able to manage it, including the amnesty,” she said.
It is understood it will run for several weeks in the autumn and will be one-off in advance of the introduction of the mandatory sentencing policy for gun crime.
There are thought to be thousands of unlicensed guns in the country.
A similar move in the United Kingdom in 2003 was seen as highly successful with the handing in of 43,908 guns and over 1 million rounds of ammunition, according to figures from the British Home Office.
In all five people were shot over the weekend in Dublin. The latest attack left a man and a woman in their 20s seriously injured after a gunman broke down the door of a house in Finglas at 7.30am today.
The 20-year-old man was hit in the groin and his 25-year-old girlfriend in the leg in the attack in Finglaswood Road. The woman’s eight-year-old daughter was in the house at the time.
It is understood the man is well known to gardaí and the shooting is thought to be drugs-related.
In a separate attack the attempted drive-by killing of alleged crime boss Mark Desmond on Sunday evening was narrowly avoided when the gunman’s weapon jammed.
The assassin was riding pillion on a motorbike which drew alongside the 28-year-old Clondalkin man’s car at traffic lights on the Old Bawn Road in Tallaght.
Desmond was shot once in the arm and a passenger in the car was also injured before the gun failed to fire.
Gardaí said they are not linking the Finglas and Tallaght shootings.
Earlier, a teenage girl was treated in hospital for pellet wounds to a leg after a a shooting in Greenfort Crescent in Clondalkin just after midnight. The 17-year-old was found by gardaí who had responded to reports of criminal damage in the area.
It is understood the shotgun attack was part of an ongoing feud between neighbouring families in the area and followed shots being fired in the same area only hours beforehand. Gardaí had been called to the scene but an investigation was not launched.
Twenty-eight people have been murdered in Ireland this year.
This week the Criminal Justice Bill will be signed into law by President Mary McAleese with provisions for mandatory five and 10-year jail sentences for a range of gun offences.
Once signed into law attacks on emergency services will be dealt with more harshly. But it may be some months before other offences come under its remit.
Pat Rabbitte, Labour Party leader, said it was a miracle that no-one was killed or more seriously injured in the attacks.
“Yet again, however, gun crime has encroached on local communities in the Dublin suburbs. Any innocent passer-by could easily have got caught-up in this incident with resultant serious injury or, even worse, loss of life,” the Labour leader said.
The Dublin South West TD went on to call for garda Operations Anvil and Crossover, set up to crackdown on gangland crime, be made permanent and properly resourced.
Joanne Spain, Sinn Féin representative in the area and candidate in the next General Election, said: “What this area needs is a proper community policing presence to ensure residents feel secure that dangerous elements within their communities are being monitored.”
