40% of gun deaths linked to drug crime
The study also found that half the gun deaths were males between 21 and 30 and that two-thirds of victims were known to gardaí or had criminal associations.
The types of guns, age of victims as well as times and locations of shootings were all included in the study of fatalities from gunshot wounds in Ireland over a five-year period.
Carried out by the School of Medicine and Department of Forensic Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), the examination of gun deaths found of the 96 cases, 70 were homicides, 23 were suicides and three were accidental deaths.
Details on the deaths between 2001 and 2005, were collected from pathology reports, medical records as well as books of evidence.
The study found 39% of the homicides were drug-related.
Pathology and garda reports revealed that a handgun was the weapon of choice in nearly 63% of homicides. Perpetrators also preferred to target victims in or around the vicinity of their own homes.
Leading criminologist Dr Ian O’Donnell said the work showed, for the first time, reasons behind shootings.
“They’re now putting some figures on what people have suspected. Now there’s really detailed information about location, victim-perpetrator relationship, if they came into contact with the law before.”
Of the gun homicides, around 63% were committed in Dublin, the RCSI work found. Overall, 20% of the country’s homicides involving firearms were carried out in just two postal districts, Dublin 15 and Dublin 24.
“When people think about crime, they tend to think we’re all at risk. What this reveals is that the risk of being a victim of serious crime is particularly spread around the country,” added Dr O’Donnell, director at UCD’s Institute of Criminology.
Around half the gun deaths involved males aged between 21 and 30.
Furthermore, 43% of the fatal attacks took place between 8am and 8pm. The remainder occurred over-night.
The analysis of gun deaths found that around one in ten were female victims.
Information gleaned from investigation files by the RCSI research team also revealed that some 66% of victims shot were actually known to gardaí or had previous criminal associations.
Other details included in the RCSI research showed that the average age of victims was 30.
The fatal shooting study was presented yesterday at RCSI’s annual research day, where a host of projects were revealed, on all areas mainly surrounding health.
