McDowell promises law change to tackle gun crime

The Minister for Justice Michael McDowell today vowed to tighten up laws to fight the escalating gun crime culture taking a grip on the country.

Mr McDowell said he would be putting proposals before the cabinet tomorrow after holding emergency talks with top gardaí chiefs.

The crunch summit, also attended by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, came just hours after yet another man was murdered during a spate of overnight shooting attacks in Limerick city.

The 40-year-old, named locally as Noel Crawford, was believed to have been an innocent victim of an ongoing feud between warring factions in the city's troubled O'Malley Park estate.

His five-year-old nephew was shot in the leg in a similar gun attack only last month.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) described the surge in gun killings as a "crisis" and has urged tough new laws to try crimelord in non-jury courts.

Mr McDowell would not elaborate on the measures he will ask his cabinet colleagues to back ahead of the high-level meeting of government ministers.

"You can rest assured that every single area where there can be tightening up or improvement, is under very close consideration," he said.

"Some of the issues are capable of fairly rapid implementation. Others will take a further amount of time," he told reporters after the hour-and-a-half meeting with Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy and his deputy Fachtna Murphy.

"But what we want to do is to have a green light for every possible step to be taken that is within our power to confront these very evil people.

"And they are very evil people and nobody should be under any illusion of that. And they have an agenda to cause suffering and pain and sorrow to a lot of people through drugs, through firearms, through murder.

"It's our intention to ensure that the rule of law in this state is upheld, that it's enforceable and that it's vigorous in its application," he said.

He has insisted demands by AGSI general secretary Joe Dirwin to extend the remit of the non-jury Special Criminal Court would not be tolerated by the Supreme Court.

Mr Dirwan said the law at present was not sufficient to deal with the crime gangs and their increasing willingness to use guns.

"While I accept there is a raft of legislation out there it's not adequate to cover the emergency situation that has now arisen," he said.

The Limerick killing has brought to six the number of murders linked to criminal gangs in ten days. It is the 63rd violent death this year, including 25 shooting deaths, the highest level for almost a decade.

Minister McDowell described the attack as the cowardly and vicious behaviour of a small number of people.