When violent criminals are imprisoned, violence falls.
That’s the lesson from recent years, as the dismantling of the Kinahan gang’s operation in Ireland has coincided with a steep drop in gun crimes.
But some of the Kinahan gang associates were imprisoned on relatively minor charges and will soon be up for release.
That’s why now is not the time to relax the focus on tackling gun crime, or to reduce funding for the sort of intensive policing that takes gun crime off the streets, says Crime and Security Editor Conor Lally on this episode of the In the News podcast.
Conor talks to Aideen Finnegan about the waxing and waning of violence linked to Ireland’s drug trade over the past two decades, why the current lull in shootings could end, and the surprising terms and conditions involved in illegally renting a gun in Ireland.
This episode was originally published in March 2023.
