Fine Gael clearly have no idea what a law is, or more accurately, what its purpose is. It doesn’t control anything. It is not self executing. It is ineffective of itself.
Furthermore, Fine Gael should get out more.
I am prompted to these remarks by the report HERE of attacks on property in Limerick involving the use of a machine gun.
Exactly who, in what debating forum, advocates the use of machine guns (I exclude George W. Bush from consideration)? The report of the Fine Gael pronouncement was this:
Fine Gael has called for the introduction of more stringent legislation to deal with those involved in gun crime.
There we go again, more evidence of fuzzy thinking about legislation. What bit of our (relevant) current legislation is not stringent?
Have we not said that possession and/or use of machine guns is unlawful?
Fine Gael want it set out that possession and/or use of machine guns is not lawful at all, at all?
Or should that be at all, at all, at all?
I think what they really want is to make it easier to lock away alleged machine gunners for longer periods by introducing mandatory sentencing and chipping away at the right to silence and presumption of innocence, strengthen powers of detention and arrest and even bring back internment.
Isn’t it odd that these proposals are made after we have emerged from more than 30 years of the Northern Emergency and there has never been a time when the threat of terrorist violence has been so low.