NI Special Branch Ballistic Unit being investigated.

[TomH]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-32700914

What was going on here then?

[petedea]

Interesting article, but at the risk of being contentious I'd suggest that if those firearms had not been returned the subsequent murders would have still occurred with the culprit drawing a different firearm from the armoury.

Whilst putting any form of weapon in the hands of known terrorists is probably not a good idea I can imagine there was significant intelligence value in doing so, especially when denying those terrorists access to small percentage of their arms dump is unlikely to make much of a difference.

Although I sympathise with the pain that the victims families will be feeling at this news.