Irish Times doing an article on firearms

garrettod

Conor Gallagher at Irish Times looking to speak to owners of firearms...

https://twitter.com/ConorGallaghe_r/status/1554464112306016257?t=av4GvSZGuNNIH3fsxm1Wmw&s=19

If you'd like to talk, you can direct message me or email at cgallagher@irishtimes.com. Thanks a mill! #journorequest

Cass

Weapons, not firearms. "Surprising" how many guns there are! Yeahhhhhhhh.........

BSA International

You'd be mad to "talk" to him !

Totally going to be an unbiased article.

"Surprising" amount of weapons...

And why? Like you don't know that they're for hunting

"Irish Times Crime Correspondent." - Hmmm. I wonder what angle he will take with an article about "weapons".....

17hmr1

I think everyone knows that no matter how many people he talks to or how many reasons he's shown for people owning firearms he's going to come down on the "guns are bad" side of the argument.

He's already playing I'm a dub I can't believe people outside the m50 have guns what sort of weird people are they.Ill take a stab and say when he hears of people shooting game he is disgusted all the while when he's happy for others to kill poultry,lamb,pigs and cattle for himself and his family to eat.

The Irish times would be positioned to a certain section of society and probably a certain area of the country, mostly Dublin so it's readers would probably be totally opposed to hunting or shooting so that's the audience he's writing for.

Grizzly 45

First rule of Gun ownership and Gunclubs...DO NOT TALK TO THE MEDIA!!

Rule 2,3,4

See Rule 1.

Munsterlad102

Article shortened: guns bad, ban them.

BattleCorp

I hate to be the conspiracy theorist in the room but you'd have your work cut out to convince me that the the media articles lately from the likes of this Irish Times dude, Deasy et al, the new FEC committee etc. aren't part of a coordinated scheme to butter up the public in preparation for shafting gun owners.

Cass

It's not paranoia when they're actually out to get you. 😁

garrettod

Long past time that the politicans in this country were reminded of how much influence the circa 250,000 licence holders, along with their friends and family, could have on a general election!

Equally, what influence those people could have, if they all decided to boycott a certain publication etc.

17hmr1

.....

Grizzly 45

That's why you don't go into that trap!You give the media whores nothing,they have no story!No caricatures ,no gammon posing with their pistols or shotguns in tweed or baseball caps.Give them ,if you must boring facts and figures,and nothing else.See how quick that story died in the Indo a few weeks ago?It now looks like a rant from two EX politicians,and is already last weeks fish& chip wrapper.

No oxygen,no story,No talk to media.

Grizzly 45

Look what I found over on Twatter....Name the famous boardsies in this clip!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt45mXPCy3g

BSA International

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119423318#Comment_119423318

Few infamous ones there too 😀

Feisar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421881#Comment_119421881

How many licence holders though? And then take off lads of my grandfathers (RIP) generation who had an old Baikal single barrel in the corner that never moved out of the equation. Add to that, we never have been a cohesive voting or single issue group. Friends and family? My wife thinks I'm daft!

Funny that it's the Shinner that can't see past guns being used as anything other than a weapon......

garrettod

Hi Feisar,

I'll try and dodge the obvious trap about what you're Mrs. thinks of you, if you don't mind 😉😂

I'd think you'd be safe enough to estimate an average of two licences per person, if you were to guess the nationwide average. While not every one of those licence holders might vote, those that do, will also likely lobby others - I know I ceratinly would, and I would get some support.

Just because we haven't been good at uniting, to stand up for ourselves, in the past, doesn't mean that we never will / never should. Whether we need a William Wallace character to unite the tribes, or just to be pushed a little too far some day, who knows. But one thing for sure, politicans fear losing their jobs, so they don't mess with other large and well organised groups, whether it's the Vintners Association, or the ICA!

The idea of just showing others to keep kicking me, or trying to discredit me, or take away my freedoms to enjoy my sporting interests, doesn't sit well with me. By all means, we've seen some silly mistakes made, over the years, but doing nothing, isn't an option, when there's a vocal group, out to use dirty tricks, to undermine us.

Cass

150,000 or so people with those 255,000 licenses spread over the 26 counties (and not evenly) means an average "lobbying group" of about 5,700-ish per county.

Given some constituencies require 10,000 and others up to 25,000 for first choice votes to get their seat (and then dismissing the single transferrable vote system we use) we wouldn't come close.

Then consider that people, and I include myself in this, are not single issue voters and that number drops dramatically.

Farmers (or single shotgun/license holders) account for nearly half the population of shooters and I'm sure they're far more interested in what affects their livelihood and will vote for the party that caters to their needs over how that party views private firearm ownership.

If that makes sense.

The reason we don't have a lobby group, or at least a serious one, is a combination of the above and the general dislike of the public toward firearms. No party will support our sport and in independents are pointless.

Feisar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119424955#Comment_119424955

🤣 I was only trying to illustrate how hard it is for us to get a bit of support. While I'd love for us to have a bit of voting clout and it really irks me how we are treated, I can't see it happening any time soon.

garrettod

Hi Feiser,

Don't worry, I did know what you meant. If we knew each other, I'd have responded with a smart-a$$ comment about you being nuts etc 😉

Ultimately, we've two choices, we either keep trying, or we hide and pray...the latter doesn't appeal to me, when we all do things legally and by the book etc.

If anything, we should be publically recognised for being model citizens, who the Gardai have the upmost confidence in etc.

garrettod

Hi Cass,

While I follow what you are saying, I see things a little differently:

I see a group of the size that you mention having the ability to lobby, to raise funds to support like minded politicans, to really support both directly and indirectly.

I'd also point out that we typically have 3-5 elected representatives in each constituency, so you don't need to secure 10,000-15,000 first preference votes, to influence the election of an individual. We've often seen the final seat in a constituency go to someone after several counts, and regularly, based on the difference of a couple of hundred votes.

We are probably all influened by a number of issues, when deciding who to vote for - me included - but increasing awareness of the greater shooting community, of politicans positions on the issue of our sport, our where we're trying to get certain people elected, can influence that, significantly.

We've seen groups of independents form working groups, and agree pacts to vote in a certain way, on certain issues. That's an option.

Sure, you are correct, about how large parts of the population see's anything to do with firearms, that's why getting the right messages out there, is so important. That's why, there needs to be voices of reason, to counteract the couple of ejit former politicans etc.

Ireland has very strict licencing laws, and the system works well (okay, most of the time), so that's an example of the message that needs to be communicated to the population - so we don't have anyone thinking that a 17yr old can go into Woodies and buy an automatic, for example.

Grizzly 45

Had a brain fart on how we deal with these future requests from Journos and the like.

Tell them to go and apply for a cert themselves!

That will get them all their answers and give them a first-hand experience of what the procedure is, and what is required,and let them jump thru all the hoops and loops and then they can write an informed and unbiased article on Irish gun ownership. Who knows, we might actually get a pro article out of them.🙄

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119427884#Comment_119427884

A group of that size could of course influence a result. But it’s not as simple as looking at total people, and total votes to take a seat. Once you discount people who don’t vote (40%), people who would have voted a given way anyway, and people who are not single issue voters. The effective power could be as low as 10% of a given population.

garrettod

...

magicbastarder

Not a gun owner here, but had a quick scan of the article and it seems grand?

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-style/2022/08/06/gun-ownership-in-ireland-dont-call-it-a-weapon-whatever-you-do-call-it-a-firearm/

Chiparus

Pretty good article.

Heckler

Not bad considering. Was always going to have the crime element in there but it wasn't hysterical.

Heckler

He said it will be open to the committee to examine the role of firearms in recent tragedies. “But the challenge is always that if somebody decides to kill somebody, in some of those cases the gun was simply the mechanism,” Mr Browne said. “I don’t think legally held weapons are a motivation for the carrying out of murder-suicides or other similar types of tragedies.”

Minister of State for Law Reform calling them "legally held weapons".....🙄

BSA International

Wow, not bad at all.

J.R.

Overall, a pretty good article, considering, ...to inform people of the fact that there are firearms legally held in Ireland. Not alarmist or over-reactive....gives the facts and mentions the fact that legally held firearms owners must meet strict rules and conditions - referees, background checks, medical etc......all licences granted are to responsible, law abiding, level headed persons to be used for sporting purposes.

BattleCorp

A couple of inaccuracies but not the hatchet job I was expecting to be honest.

I think it was pretty fair for a change.

marlin vs

First one I have read that I didn't start giving out to myself.

tonysopprano

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119436540#Comment_119436540

Quote from the article "“Large shotguns and low-powered handguns are simply suited to the job of targeted murder,” a Garda source said."

Was this a Freudian slip or a subtle stab in the back to alarm people by leaving out the word NOT

BattleCorp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119437661#Comment_119437661

I'd say either the Garda source or the author left out the word 'not'. It would be an idiotic statement without the word 'not' in there.

To be honest, when I first read it earlier today I read it with the word 'not' in the sentence even though it wasn't there. I didn't notice that it was missing.

Grizzly 45

I must admit,I am pleasantly surprised to read this article,as I figured it would be another "Guns are bad, look at America[slight mention], assault rifles, easy to get a license here, handguns, blood on the streets!!! . Let's ban them all M'kay?".

It read more statistical than hysterical and thankfully the writer didn't suffer any PTSD, like some of his American colleagues do when having to write about firearms.

A few gaffes here and there and as usual the odd non-comparisons between NI and the Republic...but Hey...Let's be thankful for the small mercies that we got this.

Without trying to sound sexist, maybe it's because a man wrote this article,as who wrote the last pro-gun article a couple of years ago...A point to ponder?

garrettod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119436125#Comment_119436125

The Minister for State really should be top of our list, for a bit of education - plenty of emails etc and he just might learn what a "weapon" actually is...

garrettod

As for Conor Gallagher's article, I think it comes across reasonably well - looks like he got to speak with the Gardai, in addition to some of the shooting community, and has helped us take a small step forward, by not labeling us unfairly etc.

Mississippi.

Yeah, a good enough article.

A "news piece " rather than an "opinion piece".

John_Rambo

As a non hunter/shooter but someone that enjoys the fruits of your labour I thought it was excellent and a win win for your community. Very factual, no triggers (no pun intended). He managed to landscape the scene with the gun owners being passive & the only ones that really know what's best without making a fool of the authorities.

As a sportsperson representing another sport (an extreme sport who's members are vilified when something goes wrong) I can 100% understand the reluctance from community members offering their voice for fear of being misrepresented or your words being twisted. Fair play to the ones that contacted the journalist. You should keep him in your back pocket, he might be handy along with Cass & Grizzly's excellent postings.

Ubbquittious

Wow very little in the way of vilification indeed. Must be a sudden outbreak of common sense happening. Not to worry though, I'm sure there will be a vaccine out soon