Spear Guns and their definition as firearms? Is is based on propulsion means.

Grizzly 45

No one? Answer Guatemala!! In an effort to preserve small game animals and birds in the 1970s, the govt there decided that banning blowpipes off the hunters and natives was the way to go.:rolleyes:. This brilliant idea then spread up to the USA,esp California[Where else] and where Hollywoo, decided to male the blowpipe the arch villains favoured weapon of choice with some dastardly poison.

Canada and then the UK decided this would also be a good idea to stop street villians killing each other and innocent citizens with blowpipes tipped with poison arrow frog venom.:rolleyes:
Banning blowpipes is IMHO one of the dumbest weapons bans ever.Its a bit of pipe FFS!

Uinseann_16

Soo if i drive a quad through a concrete culvert is that a firearm?:D:P
I mean its a "projectile" traveling through a "barrel":pac:

Cass

No one is arguing the law is not stupid.

The laws are written, usually, by people with no concept of firearms. I mean a pistol grip on a shotgun makes it restricted. So if the mag amount, barrel length, etc. all stay the same the pistol grip alone can make it restricted.

This is just one of a number of "who the feck thought that one up" laws.

Zxthinger

I put to ye that
Firstly crossbows are specifically annexed under the main 1925 act by inclusion via the 1990 legal revisions to the statute where in they are set out in the revised definitions of a firearm.

Secondly, only firearms with a barrel can discharge! Thus a pneumatic spear gun would have to have a barrel to sleeve the arrow either internally or externally and direct the high pressure air.
Thus its logical inclusion as a firearm by way of the definition mentioned earlier by others

But a rubber banded spear gun is a similar animal to a Long Bow or even closer to a catapult and is not specificly named in the law..

That's my opinions
The swords and the 1954 cut off was just to take cheap mass produced factory swords away form the kids/thugs- but anyone with a few quid could and still can buy an authentic sword for 400-500£..
Anyway I sleep better knowing that the blowguns are banned. Thank god.

gunny123

Could anyone tell if bow fishing is legal in Ireland ? I seen the video below and would like to try it, but feel the irish weather is a bit cold for it .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzbjUIcbkbg

Uinseann_16

gunny123 wrote: »

Could anyone tell if bow fishing is legal in Ireland ? I seen the video below and would like to try it, but feel the irish weather is a bit cold for it .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzbjUIcbkbg

All spearfishing(and thus bowfishing) is banned in freshwater. Its(spearfishing anyway) perfectly legal in saltwater so it(bowfishing) would be legal if your in Saltwater i guess, You could do it around a pier,rocks etc...

Grizzly 45

IOW anything that might actually be fun,is banned in Ireland when it comes to fishing & hunting and taking yourself down to giving your quarry a fairer chance.:rolleyes:

CJhaughey

I have been spearfishing for at least 2 decades and have seen a letter from the Park stating that rubber powered spearguns are not firearms the pneumatic ones are because they have a barrel and use compressed air.
I have a reasonable selection of spearguns and while they are impressively powerful out of water the actual range submersed is only a few metres, water drag is very hard to overcome.
Its not an easy sport, I remember Gordon Ramsey making an ass of himself in one TV show where he came out of the water with a very dead bass on a spear, jiggling it to make it appear alive.
You can bring them all over Europe with no fuss as fishing equipment I've been to Greece, France and Spain with spearguns and no-one batted an eyelid, airlines are used to people carrying them in places where its common.