You'd have the purple and pink haired Karens, and the wealthy student communist types up in arms, shrieking to the media who would lap up the bilge they go on with.

Nice idea....

If the DCC are prepared to blow around €25m on white water rafting in Dublin's Docklands, then there's definitely a case for putting a few mill into a decent range

Unless some philanthropist donated the land(flat) and stated he wanted a range and wildlife reserve etc adjoining it etc. Would any council etc consider it.

why not? look at how much they give to greyhound racing.

The case for a public and regulated range is well founded. But the majority would cry over the idea.

Having been involved with a club which was shut down over planning regulations and seen another partly shut down for another reason its unlikely. Not counting a few others around the country

The govt thinking that an armed and confident population would just go along with their every wish isnt very well founded, except in the US and maybe Finland.

Its a control factor like everything in this world. Its only when all control is lost that they realise the error of their ways.

All local councils have neither the expertise or the understanding. In the US there are 2.5 times the shooting ranges to Golf courses.

How many golf courses are in Ireland?

""The case for a public and regulated range is well founded""......evidence for this statement please?

Stanford wrote: »

Shooting is a minority sport, why should the taxpayer subsidise it with public funds?

Maybe because us shooters pay lots of direct and indirect taxation, licence fees and get nothing in return.

Be better off looking at trying to buy or lease a disused/decomissioned army range someplace off the dept of defence and renovating that into a viable range than trying to deal with a bunch of council Jobsworths and their ren ta mob opposition.:rolleyes:

By and by Irish shooters bring home from European and commonwealth games and Intl comps a wheelbarrow worth of medals and prizes. This is amazing when you think that this is all self-funded down to the last red cent.

Heck, even the ARW embarrassed the best snipers the US and the Western world had to offer a few years ago..But it never gets a mention of any particular value on RTE or MSM

So if by some miracle of money, training and dedication we won a gold in any shooting discipline in Tokyo 20 whenever.
It would probably be in the "and finally"news segment of the 6/1 news...That's if a dancing cat isn't trained to do a Riverdance number in Ballygropple Co wherever...:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

By and by Irish shooters bring home from European and commonwealth games and Intl comps a wheelbarrow worth of medals and prizes. This is amazing when you think that this is all self-funded down to the last red cent.

Heck, even the ARW embarrassed the best snipers the US and the Western world had to offer a few years ago..But it never gets a mention of any particular value on RTE or MSM

So if by some miracle of money, training and dedication we won a gold in any shooting discipline in Tokyo 20 whenever.
It would probably be in the "and finally"news segment of the 6/1 news...That's if a dancing cat isn't trained to do a Riverdance number in Ballygropple Co wherever...:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Unfortunately, anything other than the Olympics is ignored by the media in most minority sports. If an Irish shooter did medal at the Olympics, it would be very revealing to see how much coverage it got in the media compared to other sports.

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

Be better off looking at trying to buy or lease a disused/decomissioned army range someplace off the dept of defence and renovating that into a viable range than trying to deal with a bunch of council Jobsworths and their ren ta mob opposition.:rolleyes:

They are lucky to hold onto exsisting ranges as it is. Too many brown envelopes and glad handing with local politicians and officials saw residential planning permission getting the go ahead in areas that they shouldn't have. Now issues on noise pollution and infringement on safety templates are rearing thier heads. Not to mention the pillocks who either ignore safety flags and signs or deem it thier right to roam.

garrettod wrote: »

Is it really?

Over the years, I've seen reference to 200k - 250k licenced firearms in Ireland. If you said that it only amounted to 50,000 people, then it's hardly a minority sport, compared to many other sports that get state support of one form or another

I seriously doubt that there's that many middle aged men in extra tight spandex, cycling bikes up and down the country - it only looks like there are more of them, because they are very much in your face, these days.

Now, just think about the level of support that they are getting, not to mention the bad attitude that some have developed

Like having cycle paths installed all over the place, and they still insist on cycling in the middle of the road. Talking to two chaps who are seriously into cycling and that both said cyclist (some of them) are their own worst enemy.

Half-cocked wrote: »

Unfortunately, anything other than the Olympics is ignored by the media in most minority sports. If an Irish shooter did medal at the Olympics, it would be very revealing to see how much coverage it got in the media compared to other sports.

TBH,I don't think SS gets much coverage at all in the Olympics...Seems they are even embarrassed to have it now as well. There was even talk of doing away with firearms altogether and using those lazer pointing guns you find on an arcade game instead...[Costing a few grand of course.]. look at how ridiculous it was treated in London in 2012.

A multi-million-pound shooting range was built with armed security on the competitor's guns, and then once the last few shots were fired, the demolition crews were in to get rid of it. You usually leave the facilities standing in the host country for its athletes to use,[ and for them to become white elephants as well] Strange that one...:rolleyes:

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

TBH,I don't think SS gets much coverage at all in the Olympics...Seems they are even embarrassed to have it now as well. There was even talk of doing away with firearms altogether and using those lazer pointing guns you find on an arcade game instead...[Costing a few grand of course.]. look at how ridiculous it was treated in London in 2012.

A multi-million-pound shooting range was built with armed security on the competitor's guns, and then once the last few shots were fired, the demolition crews were in to get rid of it. You usually leave the facilities standing in the host country for its athletes to use,[ and for them to become white elephants as well] Strange that one...:rolleyes:

There are still ranges in Central-ish London though amazingly. The Ham and Petersham R&P club in Twickenham, near Eel pie Island (seems to be a few around Twickenham). The stock exchange rifle club, which shoots at London Bridge. One in a park at Hendon ! Another in Croydon, Carshalton R&P club. One in Wimbledon. There are quite a few. I suppose most date back to a time when it was good form to be a good shot.

Can you imagine if someone decided to seek to open a gun club in the Phoenix park in Dublin or a park in Limerick or Cork, the uproar :eek:


https://wprc.plexjet.net/public/home/view/180

https://www.hprpc.co.uk

https://www.twickenhamrpc.co.uk/about-us

http://www.hhrcuk.com

tudderone wrote: »

Can you imagine if someone decided to seek to open a gun club in the Phoenix park in Dublin or a park in Limerick or Cork, the uproar :eek:

The ICPSA hosted a Home International in the Phoenix Pk.

(Ok, it was back in the 1930's. How times have changed)

Half-cocked wrote: »

Most of those firearms are owned by farmers and are tools of the trade rather than sports equipment. The number of sporting shooters is much lower.

Rubbish, most farmers i know have a crappy single or double barrel shotgun that would give a gunsmith nightmares, and half of them haven't a clue where the thing is half the time.

Half-cocked wrote: »

The ICPSA hosted a Home International in the Phoenix Pk.

(Ok, it was back in the 1930's. How times have changed)

Did you ever notice the Phoenix park and the other parks in Ireland have this quaint by laws that prohibits target shooting, or the use, training or drilling with arms that go back 100 plus years?:eek:

tudderone wrote: »

Rubbish, most farmers i know have a crappy single or double barrel shotgun that would give a gunsmith nightmares, and half of them haven't a clue where the thing is half the time.

Doesn't matter how crappy a gun is, it still had to be licensed. The point I was making was that the majority of firearms are owned by farmers and the sport shooting fraternity is a minority sport. Why do you say rubbish?

Half-cocked wrote: »

Most of those firearms are owned by farmers and are tools of the trade rather than sports equipment. The number of sporting shooters is much lower.

Yep, that may be so but if you built a range you would increase sport participation.

That's that the Brits did with the indoor track cycling. They were sh1te at that sport, had few participants and then invested heavily in facilities and now they are one of the best countries in the world for that sport. Hard to take part in a sport without the facilities.

As Kevin Costner said, "If you build it, they will come".

garrettod wrote: »

Is it really?

Over the years, I've seen reference to 200k - 250k licenced firearms in Ireland. If you said that it only amounted to 50,000 people, then it's hardly a minority sport, compared to many other sports that get state support of one form or another................. (

We have all heard various numbers over the years.

To determine the true extent of firearms ownership, we would need to know the actual number of individuals who hold licenses, of course some individuals hold several licenses, but it would be a start.

A breakdown of numbers (shotguns, rifles, pistols/revolver (shorts) held) would be interesting.

In the old days it was mainly farmers, game shooters, deer shooters and clay pigeon shooters. With licensed ranges now in operation, we can add target shooters and plinkers/hobby/recreational to the mix.

garrettod wrote: »

I'm gonna need to ask you to produce the numbers and source please - that still looks a bit too loose to rely on (no offence).

In fairness, it's not a wild assertion to make.

It would be interesting to know how many people have a rifle for target shooting.

garrettod wrote: »

Hi,

I'm not saying that it is, or it isn't... the problem is that I don't think any of us really know.

There's been more speculation about this kind of stuff, then I've had hot dinners, so I don't think it's wrong to try and ensure that we work from facts, rather than hearsay etc. That's why I'm asking.

I get ya, it’d be interesting to know how many individuals have rifle licenses in the country.

I have been involved in the attempted setting up of 7 ranges. I have also watched 4 more from a distance. Some have been successful, some have not. The one common factor of all the failures is how public the issue became. Some were kept quiet from the start. Some attempted PR in the locality from the start. All that became a public issue failed to go ahead. The other relevant factor is how many people live in the vicinity of the range. The higher the number, the less chance of success. As regards the title of this thread, the chance of a publicly owned shooting range is zero. The most positive thing we can all do is to at least help keep open the existing ranges by using and helping run them. The main threats to these, other than changes to the legislation, are noise and management issues. Included in the latter are operational issues and disagreements within the committees that run the club owned ones.

Stanford wrote: »

""The case for a public and regulated range is well founded""......evidence for this statement please?

Just use the big G in your icons there and look up US Ranges.

Hope that helps

badaj0z wrote: »

I have been involved in the attempted setting up of 7 ranges. I have also watched 4 more from a distance. Some have been successful, some have not. The one common factor of all the failures is how public the issue became. Some were kept quiet from the start. Some attempted PR in the locality from the start. All that became a public issue failed to go ahead. The other relevant factor is how many people live in the vicinity of the range. The higher the number, the less chance of success. As regards the title of this thread, the chance of a publicly owned shooting range is zero. The most positive thing we can all do is to at least help keep open the existing ranges by using and helping run them. The main threats to these, other than changes to the legislation, are noise and management issues. Included in the latter are operational issues and disagreements within the committees that run the club owned ones.

Question? What if a range was set up in a non-residential area,like an industrial area of a town where "noise and pollution" was part of life even on weekends?

Was looking at some redeveloped industrial units down here in Limerick, where a range would be a possibility.Or even a 40foot self-contained range could be put in the container park?

We keep thinking of ranges having to be out in the country...maybe reverse and think the cities and warehousing or industrial areas for a range?