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A TOTAL OF 168,597 firearms certificates were issued last year, according to the latest annual review of gun licencing in Ireland.
Published today by the Justice Minister but compiled by Acting Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan, the report says that an additional 3,121 certs were granted and issued to persons not ordinarily resident in the state in 2013.
These certs are only approved for the duration of one year, whereas firearms certs to Irish residents have to be renewed every three years.
The Commissioner’s report says:
The report notes that it is the gun owner’s responsibility to ensure that their firearm remains secure and does not “fall into the hands of criminals”.
The Commissioner’s report also says that while every effort is made to process each application within a three-month window, further enquiries are occasionally required which may delay the process.
Under the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, the Garda Commissioner must carry out an annual review of the operation of the Firearms Acts 1925 to 2009 and “shall submit a report to the Minister [for Justice] specifying the number and classes of certificates and authorisations” issued.
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168 thousand citizens who know if they step out of line in any way they will lose their license and as most of them use them for sporting purposes they’re very unlikely to put that license at risk, which goes to prove that gun license holders are among the most law abiding citizens in the state.
168,000 people with guns my backside. 100,000 is a more accurate estimate – the certs are per firearm, not per firearms owner. Lots of target shooters and hunters have more than one (for the same reason a golfer has more than one golf club).
It’d be *really* nice if the Journal would get someone to write these things who actually knew anything about them instead of regurgitating a press release and getting it wrong.
It’s roughly one in every 36 adults in Ireland who has a firearm. ALL of them are signed off on personally by Gardai of Superintendent rank or higher. ALL of them have a good reason to have the firearms, a secure place to store them (which is inspected by the Garda Crime Prevention Officer in a home visit), a safe place to use them (which in the case of shooting ranges must be authorised by the Gardai and your membership and activity there is tracked) and must not, by law, represent a threat to the public or the peace or the Gardai are NOT PERMITTED BY LAW to issue the firearms cert. Our laws on firearms are among the most draconian in Europe, if not actually the most draconian.
This article is one step shy of scaremongering.
I am a gun owner and I shoot pistol and rifle on a range for sporting pleasure………..its my hobby and just like golfing, I enjoy placing a small object in a small target area at a great distance……I don’t use my guns to kill or maim wildlife….I am a target shooter…….I have nothing against hunters……. I don’t like being blacklisted because of my hobby………..legitimate gun owners in this country are bye and large law abiding citizens of good character………….so before you spew out and print the tripe that seems to hit the media every so often, consult with gun owners and clarify the situation with those who know….I am available anytime to offer assistance in editing articles to show a true perspective on the matter in hand.
How does one loose a shotgun. It must have fallen out of my back pocket!!!!
I took my dad’s apart years ago, put it in different places around the house, haven’t got the foggiest now.
You still live at home?
Could have been destroyed in a house fire,lost over the side of a boat while out shooting in rough weather,destroyed as scrap as it was too dangerous to use.Lost is too a generic term but thats how it is recorded in AGS files.
“When they come for the land take out the Gun !”…. this is an old saying I heard from a farmer in the west a couple of weeks a go.
It seems rural folk don’t have a very healthy attitude to the State’s ability to protect their property rights…
It’s a post colonial hangover, probably more evident in the west than elsewhere. They, or we, still don’t see the state as being us or ours in the way many other countries do, rather viewing it as a foreign and oppressive force. Or maybe he just liked shooting folk who would infringe on his territory, wouldn’t be too unique in that regard either.
It was more a general discussion about the amount of guns in the locality and how many of them went back to the foundation of the State …. your man couldn’t give a fig nor me neither – it’s just interesting as a social observance and what is really ticking in the heart of Ireland far from the madding crowd as it were. The economy isn’t everything to some people and that gives a different perspective I suppose.
That’s a thousand for every T.D. in the dail !
Too many guns in this little country! I’m surprised we don’t hear of more shootings than we do and I wonder how many of them gun owners are pi**ed up old men with a grudge against everything…
6 are and another 4 have malicious intent towards their toaster
Why would you have a problem with the amount of guns in the country, there are very few and possibly no shootings committed with licensed guns, so there’s no problem. And it’s not like they’re handed out willy nilly to people like they are in the states, gun laws here are very restrictive and especially with handguns which AFAIK can only be used at a range.
PAPERBOT@you sound like a gardai some amount of pitted old men in usa judging by the % and law and order seems good to me as against guardians of the peace actions here in this banana country
Well to me 170,000 guns registered in one year can’t be that good especially if so many have been reported lost or stolen! That many guns don’t just disappear so there’s obviously criminal intent with a lot of them!
yeah but did you hear what the toaster did … he forget to mention the Father of the Groom at the wedding !
Thats actually a misnomer in the figures the 170,000 guns are more or less the standard pouplation of guns in Ireland.They are liscensed for three years but AGS accounting makes it look like they are issued every year,as they were before 2008. So keep your panties on paperboy..Nothing has changed,and if you want to go worry about guns in Ireland ,worry about how easy it is to aquire an illegal one with two grand and a chat with the right scrotes who will smuggle one in for you with the next drug shipment.
All guns are lost for 3 years , what a stupid law to have brought in , they could be anywhere in them years,
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