Arming the gardaí is not the answer — the criminals will just shoot first

IT’S sad but true. You know it and I know it. The way things are going, one of these days — perhaps not so far into the distant future — some coked-up young scumbag in Dublin, Limerick or Cork is going to murder an unarmed garda.

That’s not being alarmist: it’s a killing waiting to happen — “accident” is the wrong word. What’s more, should that law enforcement officer happen to be a woman, our sense of outrage will only be compounded.

On September 25 last, in Dublin’s inner city, Garda Paul Sherlock from the traffic branch very nearly became such a statistic. He came within a whisker of losing his life, gunned down after having detected an attempted bank raid during the morning rush hour.