Tough laws to tackle soaring gun crime
Owners of firearms will also be legally obliged to secure them in safes in their homes.
Crime figures released by the Department of Justice yesterday showed a 40% increase in the discharge of firearms so far this year compared to 2003. More than 209,000 gun licences are issued each year.
Justice Minister Michael McDowell last night said new amendments to gun legislation were being included in the Criminal Justice Bill, 2004, currently before the Oireachtas.
These will include a new offence of possession of a sawn-off shotgun that will incur a mandatory minimum sentence of between five and seven years.
Mr McDowell said: "Those who seek to gain illegal access to firearms will be frustrated to the maximum extent possible."
The crime figures for the first nine months of the year also show a rise in serious sex offences. While the total number of reported serious offences dropped, including murder and serious assaults, the statistics make troubling reading for the Government. Comparing the first nine months of 2004 to the same period in 2003 the figures show:
female rape cases increased from 255 to 336 a jump of 32%;
cases of unlawful carnal knowledge rose from 61 to 77 an increase of 26%;
aggravated sexual assaults increased from 8 to 14 a rise of 75%.
sexual assaults fell by 25%, from 1,222 to 914.
Overall, the total number of serious crimes fell by 7%, including a 20% drop in murder, from 24 to 17, a 7% drop in serious assaults and an 11% fall in theft from the person.
Mr McDowell attributed the 7% drop in assaults to his hardline stance on late-night drinking and public disorder.
But he said: "If your teeth are knocked out or you're kicked about the head and put into hospital, no trend in these figures is satisfactory. You want these crimes reduced to an absolute minimum.
Labour justice spokesman Joe Costello said the rise of crime against women was of "enormous concern" as was the increase in gun crime. He also questioned the authenticity of the figures given that a recent Central Statistics Office survey showed the number of victims of personal crimes doubled in the last five years.
Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe said the sexual crime figures were "absolutely striking" and that the level of gun crime was "very alarming."
Criminology expert Ian O'Donnell, of University College Dublin, said the figures were of "limited" value as substantial numbers of crimes go unreported and many other crimes go unrecorded on garda computers.
