Proportionate Response

Following the killing of three women in an apparent crossbow attack where the suspect is a former soldier, the Home Secretary is pondering a review of the law on crossbows which was launched three years ago, in case it should prove useful in scrounging some law-and-order headlines. Concerns about the accessibility of crossbows to eighteen-year-olds have been exacerbated by the fact that the suspect is eight years older than that; at the same time, he appears epidermally innocent of any sectarian or terroristic motivation, and with regard to the British army, no urgent action is being considered.