Licensed gun-holders return fire on scaremongers

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.

Reducing those lives to mere debating points was the most ghoulish aspect of the entire tragedy.

Could we not mourn the dead before trying to use their deaths to make ideological points? It was made even worse by your scaremongering and that of the gardaí who are misrepresenting the current situation with regard to Irish firearms law.

This scaremongering is dangerous and, because of that, we wish to correct those misrepresentations.

Firstly, firearms licence-holders are not permitted to walk the streets carrying loaded handguns. This is prohibited by a number of laws, including the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act 1990. I would expect “senior gardaí” to know this.

Secondly, there is no urgent need to implement any measures in the Criminal Justice Act 2006.

Firearms licence-holders and clubs all over the country are already complying with the draft law BEFORE it comes into effect, despite the fact that enforcement of this law — at the cost of tens of thousands of euro to clubs — is completely illegal.

We do this because we wish to be safe. It is because we take ownership of the issue of safety like this, instead of waiting for the justice minister to impose inexpertly drafted measures, that there has never been an injury as a result of target shooting in Ireland.

Thirdly, there are no uncertain grounds for any garda superintendent at present when it comes to the licensing of firearms.

This is not thanks to the Department of Justice, but to shooters and the National Association of Regional Game Councils which took a case in the Supreme Court five years ago establishing beyond all doubt the primacy of the superintendent as the licensing authority in Ireland.

What the superintendent says goes. This is backed up by a Supreme Court case, Donne v Donoghue (2002). For senior gardaí to claim otherwise is reprehensible and dangerous.

Fourthly, it is deplorable for superintendents incorrectly to suggest legal obligations exist (for example, storing a firearm in a gun safe is not yet a legal obligation, it’s just what we all do because we’re not stupid). This undermines the moral authority of the entire force — something that should appal fellow gardaí and the public.

If the superintendents you cite know of a law being so openly broken, why are they taking no action other than anonymous complaints to a national newspaper? Why not arrest those breaking this law?

Fifthly, to suggest licensed firearms are regularly stolen and used in crime is nonsense. When asked in the Dáil to provide the number of licensed firearms stolen and then used in crime, we were informed by the justice minister that the gardaí were unable to keep track of such information.

So was the minister telling the truth to the Dáil or was your anonymous senior garda telling the truth to you?

Sixthly, there is no rule in the UK that pistols must be kept in a gun safe in a club and not moved without written permission. There is no such rule because there are no pistols other than air pistols legally owned in the UK, and there has been none since 1997 (which, tragically, has done nothing to stop the rise in gun crime there).

Finally, your decision to publish such a medley of half-truths and untruths from anonymous sources, and the use by those sources of the murders of 32 innocent people on the other side of the world as a means to advance a political agenda before the general election, was reprehensible.

Mark Dennehy

Secretary

National Target Shooting Association Ltd

Applewood Heights

Greystones

Co Wicklow