Gun crime - It is time for State to put up a fight

Exactly how many more people have to be gunned down before the Government realises that the battle against serious crime is in danger of being totally lost?

The two brutal murders yesterday bring to 23 the total of such killings this year, and to 115 the number of gun deaths since the coalition of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats first came to power in 1997.

From a public perspective, there was not a deterrent of such severity in place as to prevent the double killing in north Dublin yesterday — it, and worse, could be replicated today or tomorrow.