“Gardai are calling for the return of high-powered machine guns to the force,” irishindependent.ie reports, “after a sudden escalation in gangland violence in the capital in the last few days.” And don’t be giving us them low-powered machine guns, neither, the Independent didn’t add. “[Garda Representative Association] President Mr Dermot O’Brien said An Garda Síóchána is under-resourced and said he wants his members ‘[to be] protected when they go out there.'” To that end, he’s got a shopping list . . .
“We are looking for the immediate introduction of the MP7 submachine gun.
“And the return of the Uzi until the MP7 is introduced,” he continued.
“That was taken away in 2012 and hasn’t been replaced.
“The MP7 would be better for protection and accuracy,” he added.
You may be wondering why the Irish police de-tooled in the first place and what they carry now. Money matters made mincemeat of their machine gun militarization. The Irish economy went to hell in a hand basket and the government ran out of other people’s money, leading to cut-backs. Some 3,000 gardai were licensed to carry firearms; a spending review reduced the number to 1,000.
Despite the death of full-auto fun, the Irish garda are hardly disarmed. They carry SIG P226 or Walther 99c pistols. Oh, and an unspecified number of .38 caliber revolvers. Go figure.
Of course, no one in Ireland is talking about allowing citizens to tool-up to protect themselves. As the killings are all gang-related, the right to legally keep and bear arms doesn’t figure. Straight out of Compton, baby.