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.

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.