Gun owners warned to apply for new firearm licences

THOUSANDS of gun owners face prosecution and having their weapons seized unless they apply for new firearm licences. The deadline for licence applications is the end of this month.

More than 25,000 gun owners have yet to make applications for the new three-year gun licence introduced late last year.

Sgt Paul Green of the Garda Firearms Policy Unit said that more than 130,000 applications for the new licences have now been made and the majority of these have already been processed. “We have also had significant numbers of unwanted, old or obsolete firearms handed in to garda stations for destruction. However, this still leaves large numbers of firearms owners who have still not yet reapplied for their new three-year firearm certificates.