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	&lsquo;Every time there is gun crime it undermines the community&rsquo; says SF councillor</p>
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	Councillors in Dublin have reacted angrily after two children were caught up in unrelated shooting incidents over the weekend.</p>
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	An 11-year-old boy was taken to hospital with a shotgun wound to the arm after his family&rsquo;s home in Tallaght was attacked by a gang in the early hours of Saturday morning.</p>
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	In an unrelated incident in Ballyfermot, a seven-year-old girl witnessed her father being shot once in the stomach and once in the leg. The girl was not injured when a bullet struck the motorcycle helmet she was wearing while sitting on her father&rsquo;s moped.</p>
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	Local Labour Party councillor Mick Duff said the shooting in Tallaght was an &ldquo;appalling episode&rdquo; and said parents involved in criminality needed to think about their children.</p>
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	Family targeted</p>
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	He said the boy, who is from the Traveller community, could have been killed. &ldquo;No child should be exposed to that type of danger.&rdquo; Saturday&rsquo;s incident was not the first time the family had been targeted.</p>
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	A number of caravans and a car parked in the yard of their home on Belgard Road were damaged in a previous attack. Mr Duff said there &ldquo;doesn&rsquo;t seem to be any sense of proportionality&rdquo; in the apparent feud.</p>
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	The bungalow that was attacked is in a relatively isolated area on the Belgard Road. Shots were fired and many windows were broken. The family have left the home and it was vacant yesterday morning.</p>
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	Mr Duff said the Tallaght local community was shocked. &ldquo;If that had happened in a built-up area in any of our estates, God only knows what could have happened.&rdquo;</p>
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	He said the incident should be a &ldquo;wake-up call&rdquo; for adults whose actions and behaviour put their children&rsquo;s lives at risk.</p>
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	&ldquo;They know the risks of what they are involved with. These feuds don&rsquo;t seem to have any boundaries to them. It&rsquo;s nothing to do with culture . . . it&rsquo;s pure criminality.&rdquo;</p>
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	Living in fear</p>
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	After Friday&rsquo;s shooting in Ballyfermot, meanwhile, local Sinn F&eacute;in councillor Daith&iacute; Doolan said the community was living in fear.</p>
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	The girl caught up in that incident also reportedly witnessed the shooting in June that left six-year-old Se&aacute;n Scully paralysed.</p>
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	&ldquo;The fear is real,&rdquo; Mr Doolan added. &ldquo;The locals have seen gun crime and they&rsquo;ve seen the consequences of it in the area.&rdquo;</p>
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	He said the question of whether the shooting was a case of mistaken identity was irrelevant to the community.</p>
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	&ldquo;That&rsquo;s only an issue when the incident is being investigated. The wider community suffers regardless of whether it was mistaken or not . . . every time there is gun crime like that it undermines the community.&rdquo;</p>
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	<a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/two-dublin-children-caught-in-crossfire-in-separate-shootings-1.2123612">http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/two-dublin-children-caught-in-crossfire-in-separate-shootings-1.2123612</a></p>
