Gun owners face tougher tests to get licences

A MAJOR review of gun ownership is planned before the end of the year as the Abbeylara Tribunal begins probing the shooting dead of John Carthy by garda marksmen.

Among the issues to be decided by the tribunal, and consequently the Dáil, will be whether the recipients of the 209,000 firearms licences issued each year should have to be certified mentally fit to hold a weapon every time they apply for a new licence or renewal.

Doctors, psychiatrists and solicitors could also face a statutory obligation to report to the gardaí clients they believe are unfit to obtain or continue holding a licence.

The onus to inform could also be extended to family members who could be obliged by law to have a gun removed from a close relative if they believe the weapon is a danger to that relative or other people.

John Carthy, 27, died when he was shot by members of the garda Emergency Response Unit after a day-and-a-half-long armed siege at his home in the Co Longford village of Abbeylara in April 2000.

His inquest later that year heard he had a history of depression, was under psychiatric care and had an uneasy relationship with the gardaí arising out of an earlier incident which had left him mistrustful of the force.

In an opening statement in the High Court yesterday, tribunal chairman Justice Robert Barr listed 70 key questions about the incident he wants answered before making his final report to the Dáil.

Many open up what are likely to become contentious debates on the rights of citizens to hold arms and the responsibilities of regulatory authorities, including the gardaí, medical practitioners and legal profession, in relation to gun use.

Hunting and sporting organisations have been campaigning for “less draconian” laws on gun ownership and use. They will be allowed to have their views considered under a general invitation to interested parties and organisations to make submissions in the latter stages of the inquiry.

The Irish College of Psychiatrists said last night they would also be discussing the implications for practitioners and would seek to make representations to the inquiry.

The tribunal will also carry out a minute analysis of the events leading up to the siege and fatal shots, including a detailed investigation into the garda decision-making process and chain of command in place throughout the incident.

Crucially, it will raise questions about the suitability, training and experience of the Emergency Response Unit for deployment to situations involving what the tribunal describes as “an apparently dangerous man armed with a loaded shotgun who was not engaged in serious criminal activity but was a person whose behaviour was likely to be the product of mental or psychiatric illness or other such disability”.

This is the second attempt to hold an inquiry into Mr Carthy’s death. Hearings by the Oireachtas Justice Committee were halted last year after a court challenge by 36 gardaí.

Full hearings are scheduled to begin at the end of next month.