Gay Mitchell MEP on Pat Kenny this morning

johngalway

Anyone else catch it? Not sure I caught it all but he seemed to have a bit of sense about him. Able to make the difference between gunclubs/responsible shooters and criminals/illegal weapons.

Piece started out with a reporter, again, travelling to a shooting range in the Czech Republic. Rather sensational and emotional phrases "scary loner in camoflage gear", "macho", "...the gun was loaded..." (I hope the car had petrol in it too :rolleyes:). I was very disappointed with the quality of the reporting to be honest, very few if any distinctions made between types of shooting.

Also Pat Kenny never took up on Gay Mitchell's distinctions between legal/illegal shooting. Perhaps the piece itself wasn't geared towards responsible shooting but still, it would have been nice to hear something positive from the media. Maybe next time.

Sparks

Hard to imagine Gay Mitchell with sense, to be honest.

Rovi

Here's the show-
http://dynamic.rte.ie/quickaxs/209-rte-todaywithpatkenny-Wednesday.smil
That'll probably change in a week or so.

The item starts at 0:41:00, and Gay Mitchell appears at 0:51:20.

Victor

Without listening to the piece, the point was being made last week about criminals going to the likes of the Czech Republic to be trained in particular on handguns, with the sole intention being illegal use.

I met Gay at Freshers Week in TCD a couple of years ago when I was working on the rifle club sound. He seemed bang on and was interested in Target shooting.

newby.204

listening to it now ususal uninformed drivel journos not doin their job as usual, gay mitchell is about to come on!!

Sparks

Deleted User wrote: »

I met Gay at Freshers Week in TCD a couple of years ago when I was working on the rifle club sound. He seemed bang on and was interested in Target shooting.

He's also bang on about wanting Ireland to have its own fighter squadron to ward off suicide attacks on Leinster House using hijacked airliners out of Dublin airport. I rather gave up on him after that.

newby.204

Listened to the whole lot he seemed ok, challenged the boar when he tried to make us look bad(as usual)

cantona

As per all the legistrators in this country, most of his facts/information was wrong. He kept harping about "a new piece of European legislation called the European Firearms Pass" whereby a citizen of an EU country could apply for one to prove that he is in good standing in his own country before heading to a range in another EU country to shoot.

The European Firearms Pass was introduced to Irish law by SI 362/93 and only covers firearms issued in the home country and transporting them to another EU country

Sparks

Little bit of knowlege being a dangerous thing there I think cantona - he's confused about the upcoming EU directive that amends the EFP directive. Though I suppose to be fair, he's not hugely confused - the new directive was supposed to make the EFP operate the way he describes. He's just missed the bit where they watered the directive down so it didn't do that anymore.

cantona

Sorry Sparks, but what he was talking about was a bit of paper issued by Garda to say that you had permission to go to a range in Prague and learn to shoot firearms.(without brining your own)

This has nothing to do with the Euro Pass but rather a way of keeping records of who learned to shoot, what, where and when.

Sparks

Good grief. Complete confusion so. There are elements of all of those things in the new EFP stuff, but not all tied together in a knot like that

chem

So anyone can go over to this range and use some "of the most powerfull weapons in the world" how much is it to fire a MOAB (daisy cutter) or was thare any thermo nuclear devises offered on the menu

Gay sort of spoke for gun ownership by licenced owners. You can`t fault him on that one.

Kramer

Well, regarding the EFP, if you have one it means you are a firearms license holder. That would imply you're of good character & not a criminal etc. after being "vetted" by the Gardai.
I can see what he was trying to say on that score.

meathstevie

Kenny had that Czech Republic stuff on a while ago as well. The bottom line is when you fire a handgun at a range there you are not breaking any law..as for why people travel there for shooting practice is a different kettle of fish. I can well imagine there's a certain criminal element travelling for all the wrong reasons just as well as there's probably a good bit of stagweekend dirty harrying going on. If you have nothing to hide or nothing to fear you can just as well contact a club in Ireland to get a taste of pistol or rifle target shooting.

As for Gay Mitchell trying to establish a clear difference between legal gun use and ownership versus gun crime : fair play to him.

"The most powerfull guns in the world" : not the first time a hack converts a humble .22 in a powerfull rifle that could kill from 3 miles distance..while most people with a bit of cop on know that's a prerogative of equipment referred to as artillery.

N.O.I.P.

Just a though but doesn't the fact that these supposed criminals have to travel to other countries to learn how to shoot speak volumes about the safety and responsibility practiced on Irish ranges.

Surely there is a way to turn these ridiculous comments around and create some positive spin for Irish shooting sports.

sidneyreilly

N.O.I.P. wrote: »

Just a though but doesn't the fact that these supposed criminals have to travel to other countries to learn how to shoot speak volumes about the safety and responsibility practiced on Irish ranges.

Surely there is a way to turn these ridiculous comments around and create some positive spin for Irish shooting sports.

Thats a very good point N.O.I.P.

johngalway

meathstevie wrote: »

As for Gay Mitchell trying to establish a clear difference between legal gun use and ownership versus gun crime : fair play to him.

Exactly my point, decided not to get into a cynical debate about it though, glad some of us can still appreciate positive comments all the same

cavan shooter

The Sunday Worls had a write up about those ranges today. Headline was a bit worrying though.

"Calls for clampdown on shady shooting shops"