Criminal Justice Bill 2004 grants new search powers via the Firearms Acts

Sparks

Okay, so most of you know I'm into target shooting. So I've been watching the amendments to the Firearms Acts that the Criminal Justice Bill 2004 is bringing in, because they affect what I have to do to keep my licences for my firearms. Now most of the amendments are pretty much set up to give the Minister an enormous stick to beat the sport to death with, but there's this little doozy in the middle of all the shooting stuff that's of interest to most of you...

Section 4B

Firearms range inspectors.

4B.—(1) The Minister may, by warrant, appoint such and so many persons as he or she thinks necessary to be firearms range inspectors and may revoke any such appointment, at any time, by giving notice in writing to the firearms range inspector in question.

...

(4) An inspector who suspects, with reasonable cause, that any place is being used for rifle or pistol target shooting may enter and inspect it, at any time and without prior notice.

(5) The Minister shall issue to each inspector the warrant of appointment, or a copy of it, for production, on request, when an inspector is exercising any power conferred by this section.

The original idea was that these guys would be firearms experts with the Gardai or the Department of Justice and they would check every shooting range in the country for safety. Grand idea really - it could help keep our insurance costs lower and drive up the standard of shooting ranges.

The problem is that as drafted, they don't have to be Gardai. Or personnel from the DoJ. Or firearms experts. In fact, they could be convicted criminals for all the Bill says. And paragraph (4) there gives them the right to enter and search any place (which is defined as being any premises, dwelling, vehicle, aircraft, hovercraft or anywhere else at all they want) for evidence that target shooting has taken place. Except that there's no legal definition of what a shooting range is or what target shooting is in the Bill, so there's no indication of whether or not a search could succeed or fail; or even if the inspector had reasonable cause. And there's no mention of whom that inspector has to relate the reasonable cause to prior to the search; there's no mention of who he or she reports to after the search, or even if they have to report a search at all; there are no rules given as to how that search is carried out, unlike where Gardai or Customs officials execute a search warrant; the inspector doesn't even need to produce a warrant, his or her identity card is meant to be sufficient.

Am I just being paranoid here, or does that sound like a really bad idea (as in, wide open for abuse) for everyone, including non-shooters?

lostexpectation

does anybody have a clue whats in all those CJ bills?

Victor

Hmm, lots of holes there.

What would the reaction be of target shooters to someone trying to force there way into a range? :rolleyes:

Sparks

Victor wrote:

What would the reaction be of target shooters to someone trying to force there way into a range? :rolleyes:

Depends. If it's the Gardai, open doors, cups of tea. If it's not, closed doors, hurried calls to the Gardai. Thing is, over the past thirty years, we've been repeatedly abused by the DoJ for political gain regardless of how closely we follow the law. 1972, the IRA start shooting people - so down south, legitimate firearms owners have their firearms confiscated and all pistols suffer a de facto ban, including olympic target shooting pistols. From then to now, every superintendent has applied the law differently, and in many cases have to be taken to court to get them to follow the law as written, culminating in the 2002 Dunne v. Donoghue ruling in the Supreme Court to prevent the Commissioner drafting rules on getting licences (which were only distributed to superintendents, not to the general public, and which had no parlimentary oversight but in effect overruled the Firearms Act). And now this Bill looks to be trying to take all those cases and overturning them in one step, and giving the Minister a mechanism to close our sport down overnight without so much as breaking a sweat.

However, I thought section 4B actually went beyond the confines of our sport...

Sparks

It occured to me today - even if this section is not abused, even if it's used to search for (say) a RIRA training camp - the inspector has no power of seizure. He can't secure the evidence, and in the time it takes to get a search warrant for the gardai, who's to stop the culprits destroying the evidence? And if it is seized by (say) a backup team from the ERU, then it could be ruled inadmissable in court!

So even if used in good faith with honest intent, it still doesn't work! So what possible motive can there be in introducing it?

Esel

Your blue text is very hard to read against a 'Cloud' background. Please think of the children!