Majority of gun killings go unsolved

KILLERS who use guns are literally getting away with murder, according to figures which show that the vast majority of gun killings go unsolved.

In the last seven years, there were 75 murders involving the use of firearms in the Republic, but criminal prosecutions were only initiated in 26 cases and just 12 of those resulted in convictions. That means a murderer who shoots their victim has just a one-in-three chance of being pursued for the crime by the gardaí and a one-in-six chance of actually being convicted by the courts.

Labour justice spokesman Joe Costello, who sought the figures from the Department of Justice, described the conviction rate as so low as to be “unacceptable in any civilised society”.