Dear Professor O'Keeffe, I just watched your appearance on the "Paul Connolly investigates..." programme on TV3 and must say I am somewhat baffled. I've been an Olympic target shooter for nearly twenty years now, I've been involved in the running of the sport and as a result was involved in the legislative process during the drafting of the 2006 and 2009 firearms acts. As a result of this I can reasonably claim to have a working knowledge of the firearms laws in Ireland, which is - as High Court justices and the Law Reform Commission have commented before me - a distressingly rare knowledge these days as the law is spread across (at the last count) twenty-two Acts, two EU regulations and more SIs than one could shake a stick at. But I cannot reconcile what I know of the law and what you said about the law on TV3 tonight, and I wonder why you are of the impression, for example, that any 16-year-old can own a firearm and that any 14-year-old can hold one almost as an entitlement. The simple fact is that in order to get a firearms licence at 16, you have to convince your local Garda Superintendent that you have a valid reason to own that firearm, a safe place to use it and a secure place to store it, at a bare minimum (there are many other requirements including turning over ongoing access to your medical records, providing character witnesses, allowing access to your storage arrangements to the Gardai and any other condition the Garda Superintendent can think of that he wishes to impose - the Supreme Court were quite clear on this matter in Dunne-v-Donohue). A 14-year-old can only obtain a training licence in equally specific circumstances and chief amongst those in the mind of any Garda looking at the application form is that there is a responsible adult with a full firearms licence for that firearm who undertakes to store it and be responsible for its safe use. And all any Garda Superintendent has to do to deny these licences is to state that he does not believe they would be in the interests of the public safety or the peace. Firearms licences in Ireland are not an entitlement in any sense of the word, and any suggestion that a Garda Superintendent is powerless to refuse an application would be a sign that the person making the suggestion was not wholly familiar with firearms law and its application in this country. As to your query as to what possible reason anyone of such an age could have for obtaining such a firearms licence, I would remind you of August last year, when London hosted the Olympic Games. Most of the shooters in the shooting events there would have started their sports training at the age of twelve, not sixteen. The simple fact is that our Olympic athletes are put at a four-year competitive disadvantage by the current firearms legislation; and quite frankly, given the subject matter of the programme in question, I don't believe that the concerns of Mr.Connolly quite match up with the reality of the situation where licences are granted to younger applicants (a situation which frankly, is much rarer than the programme suggested). There is no doubt that there is a serious gun crime problem in Ireland; but frankly sir, licenced firearms holders are not the cause of this problem and the manner in which you were quoted on TV3 in relation to this topic was a disservice to your academic qualifications in the field of law, and were I you, I believe I would be filing a grievance with TV3 upon those grounds. Yours in Sport
Sparks wrote: » I did think it was rather funny - "I've embedded myself into the black market"... and then "it's perfectly legal to buy this knife"...
harmoniums wrote: » Sux, I cant see it here in the USA, its region locked. Sounded like it was a load of old codswallop from what you guys are saying. I'd love if someone would do a bit on old guns from Ireland, I may be able to provide some stock.....
BattleCorp wrote: » I thought that the programme lost credibility near the start when yer man claimed he was making over €500,000 per year selling illegal guns. I find this very very hard to believe - or maybe I am just way way way out of touch with reality. As Cass said, those programmes are all about blurring the lines between legally held and illegally held firearms. Some of the shooting organisations should get together and try organise making their own programme, showing how difficult it is to get a licence, show target shooting in progress and let people know that we aren't all dressed like Rambo going around putting "a cap in somebody's ass".
juice1304 wrote: » No more dangerous than my car or a knife in the kitchen. Drugs are illegal are they hard to get? No is the answer to that question, So like with anything else if someone wants something they can have it. Having some of the most restrictive firearms laws in the world dose not make you any safer. I guess all those guns the provos had were from licenced gun owners were they.:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: Im alright though jack:)
Dalken wrote: » II dont see how a gun is comparable to a kitchen knife or a car to be honest. It's daft comments like this that play into the hands of those that would seek to jump on the anti shooting band wagon.
Sparks wrote: » That's one school of thought. Another is the Swiss school of thought, where they looked at what was actually killing people. End result, more firearms than anywhere outside of Somalia but incredibly low gun crime; but you drive over the speed limit and you're in incredibly deep ****e. Get caught (and traffic stops there are serious business - it's not two lads and a sign, it's half the cop shop on the side of the road to process as many as they can catch) and you're paying a percentage of your gross annual salary as a fine the first few times (and the percentage rises every time) and then they just pull your licence. Get caught driving without having removed all the snow from your windscreen, and that's your licence gone. And so on - things that we see on our roads every day here, would lose you the licence and possibly mean jail time over there. End result of the crackdown on cars? In 2011, Switzerland had a death rate of 3.83 per 100,000 (source) while Ireland had a rate of 6.11 per 100,000 (source). And while our roads are mostly on the flat, Swiss roads look like this: Personally, I think if you can get results like that, there's a lot to be said for how you're doing things.
Dalken wrote: » I would think that gun controls do make the general population safer yes and I'm glad that most people in this country feel the same way.[/B]
Dalken wrote: » I dont see how a gun is comparable to a kitchen knife or a car to be honest. It's daft comments like this that play into the hands of those that would seek to jump on the anti shooting band wagon. Paul Connelly would have loved to have met you when making his show.[/B]
Dalken wrote: » I'm not sure what your point is about the Provos either but I understand that this is something you feel strongly about.
e granny held on to the grandads old webley revolver until the amnesty, the thing was never licensed and illegal for that matter but my family saw nothing wrong with this
Licensing regulates and filters the idiots who should never have guns, I agree it goes too far sometimes but by and large I think too much is better than too little.