Curious case of gun seizure

Nekarsulm

In our local paper today (The Anglo-Celt) there is a report of a student at the local boys secondary school, St. Patrick's College, having a photo of himself holding a gun circulated by a third partyon Snap Chat.
So what, you might say.
Well its reported that the picture circulated had the heading "coming soon to a school near you".
Gardai were contacted by the school Principal , and they reported back to the Principal within two hours that they had visited the boys home and there was no danger from the student to the school student body.
The gun was legally held by the boys father, and the photo was at least six months old.
The photo was posted online by a third party.

Now for the kicker, Gardai reported that they "have seized two legally held firearms".
How strange that they should seize these legally held firearms in such circumstances!
Can anyone clarify if a parent is in breach of the law/their licence conditions if they allow their teenage child hold it, or shoot with it?

gunny123

It doesn't take much for the guards to take a gun in, a hysterical headmaster whinging down the phone was probably enough to do it.

BattleCorp

To be fair, I don't blame the Gardaí in this case.

What else are the Gardaí to do when they receive a report that a picture is being circulated of someone in possession of a firearm that they aren't licenced for along with a vague threat to a school.

If I was in the Gardaí's shoes, I'd remove the firearms pending an investigation. Is that reaction over the top? Possibly but we don't know the full facts of the case.

Was the father there when the kid had the gun? Did the kid take the gun without permission? Was the father adhering to the safe storage requirements? Who took the picture? Were there other kids there when the rifle was being handled? Who added the vague threat to the picture? Was this threat real? There are lots of questions that the Gardaí need to find out before they decide whether or not to return the firearms to the owner.

Sparks

To add to the list of questions:

• Was the photo taken at a range (in which case 2(4)(d) would apply) or not (in which case you're in a whole other can of worms)?
• Did the photographer grant permission for the third-party publication of the photo of a minor (and if not, should charges be faced by the third party involved - and if you think that's overkill, you've not heard of minors circulating naked photos of each other like that and the legal mess that creates even when there was no malice intended, or the legal debacle when there was).

Nekarsulm

All good points, Gunny, Battle & Sparks.
Wouldn't you be well p'eed off with both your child and the smart are who put the photo up on line, if the Gardai arrived at the house to confiscate your guns, and all because of a photo taken while you supervised the youngster!
How exactly are youth's expected to be instructed by a competent adult in safe use of sporting firearms?

gunny123

I seen something similar years ago when the crowd of kids i was in college with took photos at a drunken party for bookface and all that. They were posing in allsort of dodgy positions with this, what looked like single barrel shotgun. It turned out it was a deactivated wall hanger, the only damage it could do is if you dropped it on your foot. Could be exactly what happened here.

Sparks

Nekarsulm wrote: »

How exactly are youth's expected to be instructed by a competent adult in safe use of sporting firearms?

At a range under section 2(4)(d) or under a training licence elsewhere (but that required them to be 14 or older).

Chiparus

That is terrible, by this rationale, if someone photoshopped a picture of my son holding an AK 47 with the words " bowling for ........' or "going postal"
I could have my guns seized?

Vizzy

Chiparus wrote: »

That is terrible, by this rationale, if someone photoshopped a picture of my son holding an AK 47 with the words " bowling for ........' or "going postal"
I could have my guns seized?

You could, presuming you possessed an AK 47.

cookimonster

This post reminded me of this case in the USA I read about . I'll start with a quote and you can read the rest in the link........


'The beginning of the end came one weekend in September 2006. O'Neill and his wife, Eileen, were away and his son, Sean Jr, aged 17, held a drunken party in their home. Late at night, he pulled one of his father's guns, a .45-calibre pistol, from under a mattress and he and his friends began to play with it.' (Guardian News and Media Limited 2017)


.......this went wrong in ooohhh soo many ways!!!

If only he'd locked those guns away.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jul/29/sean-oneill-ira-ireland

Chiparus

Vizzy wrote: »

You could, presuming you possessed an AK 47.

No , I don't but they confiscated two guns off the guy in the OP.

Vizzy

Chiparus wrote: »

No , I don't but they confiscated two guns off the guy in the OP.

Way too many unknowns about the case, but the Gardaí are not going to take one gun(the one in the picture) and leave the dad with the other one.

I am assuming that the Gardaí seized the guns pending an investigation and,again assuming, that if the whole thing turns out to be a bit of a storm in a teacup, he will get them back.

Sparks

Chiparus wrote: »

No , I don't but they confiscated two guns off the guy in the OP.

Yes, but he actually possessed the firearms in the photograph according to the account, whereas you're talking about a fictional firearm being photoshopped into the photograph, which would just be a straight defamation case rather than a legal mess involving possible violations of the firearms act on one side and probable defamation on the other.

This is going to revolve entirely on the details; I'd hold off from speculating about it at all until those details got confirmed, but I can understand why the Gardai felt the need to seize the firearms until that was done (what happens after that point, well, there might be differences there but let's see what happens before disagreeing with it ).

Captainaxiom

And of they (the guards) left the guns and something happened you'd have the same crowd here whinging why didn't they do something. Sometimes people just love to bitch**


**without any of the facts

Armchair Internet dectective work it seems there's generations of people employed in it.