Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

——in respect of both legally licensed guns and illegally held weapons in the hands of criminals, it will inevitably lead to a situation where the gardaí will be obliged to be armed, which would not be welcomed by most people and would cause much apprehension. We have been fortunate to avoid some of the spectacular and hideous crimes in other jurisdictions, particularly in the United States. Elsewhere, we all recall the incidents in Dunblane and Finland. There have been many high profile cases of gun crimes in schools in which many young people have been killed and seriously injured. There are many strong arguments for why we should avoid going down the road of encouraging people to become acquainted, particularly at an early age, with guns and other weapons.

I welcome the Minister's proposal to include in the legislation provisions for the control of the proliferation of knives. Many crimes, including many murders, are committed using knives as weapons. Some young people carry knives as status symbols. The problem with young people, and we were all young at one time, is that they get into an altercation of some kind, if they are carrying a weapon it tends to be used and what would have been a minor incident becomes a very serious one.

I note the provision in the legislation for a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for such offences. I welcome that even though, as was pointed out by Senator McDonald, the minimum sentence that applies to the possession of drugs is not always enforced. Also, mandatory life imprisonment for murder invariably is much less than a life sentence and we must examine that. In that regard, and I have mentioned this issue many times in the House——