Nov 24th 2022
As no doubt many of you have heard the firearms of Ireland world is about to be stirred again in the proposed White paper bill of the Criminal justice miscellaneous provisions part 2 2020.
This is again a stew pot of Irish criminal legislation that has had some firearms provisions thrown into its ingredients. Stuff like markings of firearms and the penalties for erasing those, the Gardaí not being arrested for participating in “combat training”, storage of black powder etc.
The one that concerns the most is the revocation of according to the Minister or ministers, as it seems to be both Helen McEntee [FG], Minister for justice and James Brown [FF] Minister for State seconded to the Dept. of justice who are pushing this part.
According to the Dept. of Justices own figures supplied to Firearms United Network Ireland[FUNI] the grave threat is caused by in total since 2015 Thirty Eight![38] licensed firearms and a total of both licensed and “unlicensed“ (We presume this is dealer stock?) of 51 semi auto rifles. So we are talking about 89 rifles in total, and 38 licenses by the Depts. own figures?
According to the Firearms Expert Committee [FEC] minutes of October 2022. Both the Dept. of Justice and An Garda Siochana members of FEC could see no viable reason to grandfather these 38 issued licenses. They were no doubt licensed with the same good reasons as those rifles Pre 2015, either target shooting disciplines and/or hunting. But now these are somehow not good reasons any more and justifies revocation and causing hardship for these 38 owners. Especially for those who have purchased some models in value over 2000 euros from mainland EU.
Firearms United Network Ireland calls on the Minister for Justice, whether it is McEntree, Brown or Humphries as acting minister to meet with representatives of FUNI to discuss and hammer out an agreement on grandfathering these remaining 38 licenses or giving these owners an alternative to keep these firearms.
FUNI contacted the minister for Justice office through our local TD and have had no response so far as of this date 24/11/2022 as to a meeting.
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I have many feelings on this matter as a holder of one of these soon to be revoked license’s. I do understand the ministers concerns but I do believe the decision was made without fully examining the issue in an Irish context. This decision, though firstly mentioned back in 2015 and kicked the proverbial can down the road by subsequent administrations and the issue would continue to be such were it not for high profile and utterly despicable activities by persons outside the Irish state and the administrations fear similar acts of senseless violence here.
This on the surface does appear to be a reasonable concern but there are mitigating factors the minister is unaware of or doesn’t see the mitigations for what they are. Firstly our exceptionally robust firearm licensing laws, while every firearms certificate holder and even members of An Garda Siochana will admit the ways licenses are granted is very flawed like life itself these are in a perpetual state of change, some good some bad. Secondly our health service including mental health services, while still under strain, are still managing to provide an excellent level of service in comparison to foreign jurisdictions who use a for profit privately funded health service where so many individuals with far easier access to firearms fall through the gaps in that system. Thirdly, and this mitigation is so underestimated for the good it serves, are our broadcasting regulations. Our broadcasting regulations simply would not permit non-factual opinion based “news” shows which feature no news but merely the opinions of the personality hosting the show who do not engage in debate or respect opposing view points. They habitually interview guests who echo their own view points and reinforce a 1 sided narrative creating an audience by tapping into perhaps unfounded fears and feeding those fears with innuendo and here say.
While I applaud the minister and her predecessors for their diligence on this topic, I fear they have not fully considered all these mentioned mitigations and too often rely on information from just 1 source, An Garda Siochana, while they have the best of intentions, they are still by virtue of their training and experience “hammers” and to a hammer, everything is a nail and so incapable of offering balanced guidance.