Armed gangs and murder

Sir, – What is truly remarkable, and indeed frightening, about most comment and analysis of recent gang murders is the absence of analysis as to how we arrived at a position where it is now necessary to ring-fence our capital city with armed checkpoints. More guns, police, soldiers, courts and prisons can only address the symptoms and can themselves pose a real threat to our faltering democracy. We tiptoe blindly into a very dangerous place when we ignore the truism, “There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.” – Yours, etc,

JIM O’SULLIVAN

Rathedmond, Co Sligo.