A FEW years ago, during the Athens Olympics, Moore McDowell said that it was a good thing that the Irish clay pigeon shooter Derek Burnett failed to win a gold medal, for if he had, we’d be calling for a shooting range in every parish.

THE report that fewer budget flights are being taken as companies, like Ryanair, hike their prices for “low-cost” flights by 12% this year, didn’t surprise some of us at all.

I SHARE Mark Dennehy’s critical views (June 2 ) on the spending of €2.5 million on a temporary hanging garden at a flower show in a foreign city while the organisers of the Fermoy European Open got nothing. Anyone who knows about sponsorship would be aware that it is critical to sponsor the event, not the individual.

MICHAEL NOONAN has admitted in a parliamentary question that he omitted seeking expert advice from the Pensions Board before introducing the pension tax.

SPORTS people who use handguns have given a qualified welcome to a “handguns ban” announced by the Government yesterday.

GARDAÍ have expressed concern at the sharp rise in the legal ownership of handguns in recent years.

AS the reporter who compiled RTÉ's Prime Time report on May 20 on a recent High Court case concerning the firearms legislation in Ireland, I would like to respond to Mark Dennehy’s letter (June 2), which criticised it.

I HAVE been an Olympic target shooter for the past 14 years. I’ve competed, coached and run competitions. I’m a licensed judge.

I WAS disgusted by the letter from John Tierney of the Association of Hunt Saboteurs headlined ‘Guns in the field can become guns in the kitchen’ (August 4). To take a tragedy like that in Co Wicklow recently and use it to promote a personal opinion on anunrelated topic is, in my view, despicable. Given the scale of the suicide crisis in Ireland, one would have to wonder why anyone would use such a tragedy as a personal point-scoring exercise.

I WAS disgusted by your coverage of the 33 people murdered in Virginia — the bodies barely cold and people already using their deaths for political ends.

I AM writing on behalf of the National Target Shooting Association (NTSA) in response to the letter from John Fitzgerald entitled ‘Shooting incident should be a warning’ (Irish Examiner, April 22).