AN INNOCENT FAMILY was lucky to escape injury after a number of shots were fired into their house in Dublin by a shooter who gardaí believe was targeting a convicted sex offender, TheJournal.ie has learned.
The case of mistaken identity happened on Tuesday night in Crumlin. Around four shots were fired through the front door of the house at approximately 10pm. There were four people in the house at the time. Nobody sustained any injuries.
Gardaí believe the gunman got the wrong home. The family who live at that home have no involvement in crime whatsoever.
Officers are pursuing a line of inquiry that the gunman was targeting a convicted sex offender who is also allegedly involved in low level drug crime in the area.
The way in which this article was written suggests that it would be okay for the gunman to shoot at a home if it was the actual home of a person convicted of a sex offense. Wrong! Registrants, their loved ones and anyone else they live with have the same right to live in peace without fear of being shot by a vigilante. It is the vigilante who poses a current danger to society and not the registrant.
In reading the article it sounds more like this attack had some other motive. I would suspect drugs, as both parties had considerable criminal history as well as prior drug offenses, and the innocent family was caught in the middle of this. The astonishing thing is that as drug related crimes and deaths soar, especially with the opioid epidemic, there is continued political pressure to decriminalize drug offenses. Yet, hundreds of thousands of non-violent people on the registry are just trying to live their life and avoid conflict while being vilified and ostracized at every level.
That’s the British isles for you though. At least they have gun control there.