If we only called them 'heavily armed criminals' Bunnahabhain, I would imagine the priority in getting weapons off them would be less again. There are 'heavily armed criminals' in every major city in England.

No, the reason the calls for disarmament have been directed at the IRA, is because they were the only ones who agreed to it as part of the Good Friday Agreement. The Loyalist Paramilitaries were never pressured to do so, since the extreme right-wing of Unionism (DUP and beyond) denounced the Agreement from Day 1, and thereby exempt from the bindings of it. Paisley's oft-spoken ambition in fact, is to bring down the GFA (See above link in previous post).
And far from being fragmented, they are united especially as regards not sharing power with the Nationalists.
'Ulster says NO!', remember?

I think you exaggerate when you say that the IRA are active in Britain; they have been on ceasefire since before the Good Friday Agreement. The Loyalists of course, wreaked havoc on our mainland for all those years, quite notably in Dublin and Monaghan, 31 years ago today.

It does matter Bunnahabhain.
It matters to the Peace Process that Loyalist guns are removed from the equation.

Thank you Gervase, for taking the time to do this.