Judge’s warning on rise in gun licences
He said reasonable people were entitled to feel alarmed about the massive increase in recent years in the number of pistols licensed here for private use.
Calling for legislative clarification of the rules on firearms control, Mr Justice Peter Charleton said the increasing numbers of weapons licensed here for personal use — with 1,600 pistol licenses last year — is “exactly the opposite” to Britain, where handguns were banned in the wake of the Dunblane massacre.
Judge Charleton also said the murder and suicide rate, the general proliferation of guns and the kind of guns that are particularly dangerous may be important factors in any “sensible view” on licensing firearms here.
He noted that, from 1972 to 2004, no revolvers, pistols or rifles above .22 calibre was licensed here except in the most exceptional circumstances. However, the policy was relaxed last year and some 1,600 pistols were licensed in that period for private use.
Judge Charleton made his remarks when refusing a challenge by Ronan McCarron, who pursues shooting for sport, to a decision of Superintendent Peadar Kearney of Letterkenny Garda Station in 2005 refusing him a firearms certificate for a .40 calibre Gloc model 22 pistol which Mr McCarron had bought for target practice and sought to licence.
Superintendent Kearney said he refused the certificate because he did not believe the pistol was a suitable weapon for target practice and regarded the weapon as a combat weapon.
Mr McCarron argued there was no statutory basis to refuse him the certificate.
Judge Charleton ruled the superintendent had discretion to refuse to issue a certificate and had exercised “a sensible policy” through an individual decision within the terms of legislation “concerned with the public good”.
He said that possession of a firearm was a privilege and not a right.
