Madam, - I refer to Jim Loughran's piece on the arms trade in your issue of July 1st. What is most vile about the international arms trade is that most of it is legal. Nearly all the weapons that kill at least half a million people a year and maim countless numbers originate with "respectable" companies that are assessed on how good they are as employers and what profits they produce. The reality, of course, is that they are little better than the illegal narcotics barons. They live by death.
How right Mr Loughran is when he reminds us that weapons that end up being used in terrorism or other crimes started off as legitimate sales. Hence the need for draconian controls on the sales of all weapons of this nature. No week passes in this country without reports of armed attacks on people, frequently resulting in death. There is an overwhelming case not only for the licensing of the possession of arms being government-controlled but also their sale.
As an immediate step we need more stringent restrictions in the licensing regime for a variety of weapons and we should start with shotguns. It is disgraceful, reckless and downright crazy that a 16-year-old boy is eligible to have a gun licence.
Yet he cannot buy cigarettes in a shop or alcohol in a pub. As the recent controversy on statutory rape reminded us, such a boy is regarded as a child. So why does the current law allow for a 16-year-old, to get a gun licence in certain circumstances? The answer is that it has been like that for a long time and the gun lobby in Ireland, which is the equivalent of the American National Rifle Association, has our legislators terrified into silence and submission.
One does not need to be an expert on 16-year-olds, especially boys, to know how immature they can be. Just look at our road traffic accident records. And cars are not made for killing; guns are. Will nobody shout stop this madness? - Yours, etc,
TOM SULLIVAN, Clooneybeirne, Roscommon.