Memories of the 2009 kibosh

Ubbquittious

I've been reading this forum a bit and see it mentioned enough. The centrefire pistol ban, increase in license fees and all that.


Did this kibosh have any support among the shooting community? There was talk of the "wrong" people getting involved and things getting out of hand. Any truth to this? Was there any organised effort made to stop the kibosh from happening?

otmmyboy2

I'll leave it to those with a more intimate knowledge to expand on it, but from my perspective.

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Did this kibosh have any support among the shooting community?

Yes, there was support from within the shooting community in favour of the ban.

There was talk of the "wrong" people getting involved and things getting out of hand. Any truth to this?

Dunno about that, by "wrong" people could you elaborate a bit?

Was there any organised effort made to stop the kibosh from happening?

I know there were some localised efforts made but nothing national. The major orgs also rather left those affected by the ban hang out to dry.
Very much an attitude of "oh, it doesn't affect us, so it's fine".

You know, the usual divide and rule approach working as well as it usually does here :P

More than anything I probably regret not taking the plunge and licencing a lovely Glock 34 I had my eye on sooner, but the PTB at the time in my district did not look kindly on anyone under 21 applying for a pistol licence. :mad:

tudderone

Yes. One unpleasant old coffin dodger used to come into the pistol range and give out about "cop killers", which is what he called pistols. He came in one morning when i was there alone and started his crap, he was promptly told to take a long walk off a short pier, with a little language not for those under 18 to witness included. The message was sent loud and clear. He didn't come back .

But apart from a few like him, most were supportive even if they didn't have any particular interest in pistols or pistol shooting.


Wrong people ? As with everything, yes. One well known dealer with a holstered glock on his hip, strolling into petrol stations and shops didn't do us any favours and was ammo the guards needed to throw at us. Then we had the king of the walter mitty's up in Dundalk or Drogheda running armed bodyguard courses for the gullible with too much money to spend.

Grizzly 45

There were multiple factors that made up the perfect storm that lead to the as I call it Pearl Harbour event of the ban.

1] The pistol applications went from 1 to over 1000[?] plus within a matter of 3 months,post the high court challenge, and AGS was utterly overwhelmed by this decision and demand. They didn't know, and didn't want to know how to deal with this as it was the first major challenge to their absolute power on firearms issues.

2] We did ourselves no favours either. The notorious IPSC pistol shooting demo of lads going full tilt boogie doing rapid-fire drills and off swinging platforms scared the bejazayus out of the AGS who were invited to this and ministerial staff from the DOJ.
On a follow onto this...the body governing IPSC here at the time gave no thought to a fallback position of having practical shotgun or rifle events as well.It was pistols or nothing.

3] Yes there was disdain for practical disciplines and pistol shooting here. Even on boards!! A certain mod and a certain individual had regular and bloody battles here about the topic in the early days;)
It was vilified by a certain then head of a very large Irish shooting organisation after an article appeared about it in the Irish shooter's digest, along with numerous Fudds adding their 2 cents worth in the letters column.

4] Lord baron Gym Shortt of Castleshort, Castlebellingham Co Louth. Supreme Walt almighty. This plank was apparently running bodyguard courses with Irish participation up in his stately manse in Louth.

There is a whole unbelievable tale about this character and I'd suggest reading up about it on the UK website Army Rumour Service or[ www.Arrse.co.uk] under the form "Walts".It is over 20 pages long and a laugh a minute on how this chancer fooled Govts and military the world over...But we digress... Co Louth happened the time to be the constituency of one of the most anti-gun Fianna Fail TDs called Dermot Aherne, who then became minister for Justice and a zealot with a mission.:mad: So having a chancer like that in his constituency...Well, you can guess the outcome...

Aherne even said that in May 2006 at the Assoc of Garda Sgts and Inspectors AGM that he would "tighten up on licensing of firearms in Ireland to prevent a "US-style gun culture"[Whatever the Hell that is!]

That should have sounded "General quarters and man battle stations!" in the Irish firearms owners ship...There should have been phone calls, letters, emails blizzards, questions raised in the Dail about the minister's comments and plans by our orgs...We got...Crickets!Apart from the usual appendage measuring between those in control from back then:mad:

I remember one comment here on boards/shooting that summed up the attitude perfectly "Shure the ass has just fallen out of the economy. He'll have more important things to worry about than us!":mad:

The murder of an innocent in Limerick, with an illegal firearm, on orders of a coked-up drug dealer, was his cynical coat peg to hang us legit shooters in a "Pearl harbour" style attack that set Irish shooting back again by another decade and devastated us in the fact we are the only nation on earth that has banned an internationally recognised sport:mad:

The rest they say is history...:rolleyes:

tudderone

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

2] We did ourselves no favours either. The notorious IPSC pistol shooting demo of lads going full tilt boogie doing rapid-fire drills and off swinging platforms scared the bejazayus out of the AGS who were invited to this and ministerial staff from the DOJ.
On a follow onto this...the body governing IPSC here at the time gave no thought to a fallback position of having practical shotgun or rifle events as well.It was pistols or nothing.

3] Yes there was disdain for practical disciplines and pistol shooting here. Even on boards!! A certain mod and a certain individual had regular and bloody battles here about the topic in the early days;)
It was vilified by a certain then head of a very large Irish shooting organisation after an article appeared about it in the Irish shooter's digest, along with numerous Fudds adding their 2 cents worth in the letters column.

The gas thing is, anyone who is or was serious about practical, can take a spin across the border and tip on, its huge up there, and the PTB have zero issue with it.

Ah yes the kinky leather jacket with fifteen straps, elbow pads, blinkered specs and special gloves to launch a .22 bullet 50 meters, brigade. They didn't like it in our club either, but i didn't see a stampede of newbies rushing to get involved with target rifle either, quite the reverse.

Grizzly 45

tudderone wrote: »

The gas thing is, anyone who is or was serious about practical, can take a spin across the border and tip on, its huge up there, and the PTB have zero issue with it.

Yes,and this is why I keep suggesting that we try and get an "Irish" version of it going around now,as we actually have a Chief Commissioner who comes from a police force that is well acquainted with "combat training" and a sport disipline. Its a decade past and all the political and police figures have gone,so it is more or less a fresh sheet.

Ah yes the kinky leather jacket with fifteen straps, elbow pads, blinkered specs and special gloves to launch a .22 bullet 50 meters, brigade. They didn't like it in our club either, but i didn't see a stampede of newbies rushing to get involved with target rifle either, quite the reverse.

Not helping by their other lot blundering in and demanding that only "Olympic style pistols "in .22 should be exempt with their 5 shot mags:mad: THE main reason we are stuck with 5 shot revolvers and .22 5 shot mags,this idea took root in the PTB, and it was another bloody battle to convince all and sundry that list of approved pistols would be outdated within 12 months. Mor of the usual "Fk U I'm all right and MY particular discipline is more important than yours!" attitude that screws us here:mad::rolleyes: