Petition to call for a review of the Firearms Act and to extend the remit of the FCP

 General, NTSA and sports administration, Politics  No Responses »
Nov 022011
 
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Click here to sign the petition

We wish to call for a review of the Firearms Act and to have the remit of the Firearms Consultation Panel extended

Firearms law in Ireland is currently spread across 19 Acts, 2 EU directives and well over 60 Statutory Instruments, before case law and the Garda Commissioner’s guidelines are taken into account. It is estimated that fewer than two dozen people in the state have a working understanding of Irish firearms law as a result of this.

Since 2006 – since which time three acts, approximately twenty statutory instruments and an EU directive have been added – the Law Reform Commission has been calling for a restatement of the Firearms Act to simplify this situation. High Court Justice Peter Charleton has stated, in McCarron-v-Kearney, “the piecemeal spreading over multiple pieces of legislation of the statutory rules for the control of firearms is undesirable. Codification in that area is almost as pressing a need as it is in the area of sexual violence.”

Since 2006, an expert panel has existed, consisting of representatives of the target shooting and hunting community, their insurers, the firearm dealers trade, the Gardai, the Department of Sport, and chaired by the Department of Justice. This panel, the Firearms Consultation Panel, has advised on technical aspects of firearms practice and how that practice and firearms legislation can best coexist. However that Panel’s remit was only to oversee the implementation of the 2006 and 2009 acts and as such is now coming to a close.

We, the undersigned, wish to call upon the Minister for Justice to review the Firearms Act and the Law Reform Commission’s call for a restatement of that Act, and to extend the remit of the Firearms Consultation Panel to become a permanent advisory panel to the Firearms Unit of the Department of Justice. We believe that the current state of affairs with regard to firearms legislation in Ireland is unacceptably complex and that dismissing the Firearms Consultation Panel at this time would be a significant mistake in light of that complexity and the urgent need to address it.

Click here to sign the petition

 Posted by Mark Dennehy at 14:43  Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

ISSF makes it into Youtube’s Top Three

 Events, General, NTSA and sports administration, Politics  No Responses »
Mar 222011
 

From the ISSF website:

Shooting Sport TV Channel made it to YouTube’s top-3
The ISSF Channel turned out to be the third most viewed YouTube Partner’s Sport Channel of Germany, last week, during the fist stage of the 2011 ISSF World Cup Series held in Concepcion, Chile.

More than 12.000 views within a week, and thousand of spectator watching shotgun shooting finals & highlights every day, pushed the ISSF TV Channel up to the top-3 of the most viewed Partner’s Sport Channel of YouTube in Germany, last week (7-13 March).

Since January, the International Shooting Sport Federation shares TV footage of its main competitions on YouTube, in the frame of the “YouTube Sports Hub” launched by SportAccord.

The ISSF YouTube Channel, www.youtube.com/issfchannel, already offers a library of 145 videos, covering the main ISSF Championships of the 2010 season, and the full coverage of the first 2011 ISSF World Cup Stage in Concepcion, Chile.

Since the channel became operative, three months ago, it was visited by almost 40 thousand viewers, and more than 295 thousand of videos were played, making of the ISSF channel one of the most viewed sport channels on YouTube.

And that’s just the beginning. The best shooting sport’s footage of the 2011 ISSF World Cup Series and of the 2011 ISSF Shotgun World Championship will be broadcasted on YouTube as well, in the months to come. Highlights, interviews and full-length finals will be available for the shooting sport fans to comment, rate and share.

New videos will be uploaded next week, as the ISSF Combined World Cup Stage in Sydney, Australia, will start, on the 21st of March.

 

Sweet. Nice to see the kind of impact modern media can have like this – this is the sort of thing that gets the sport noticed by advertisers, and advertisers drive TV coverage, and TV coverage drives public opinion, and public opinion drives laws. So it’s good news for everyone in the long run, ISSF or not. And it’s a great direction for ISSF to go in, because it opens up our sport to everyone – at the Olympics, NBC says what goes to air and what doesn’t, and even with all the camera crews there, we might not ever get to see the footage. With youtube, you just upload the whole thing and let folks go see their sport.

And the numbers they’ve gone in proves a long-known point: Shooting, in terms of how many active participants there are in it, is one of the world’s largest and most successful sports, bar none.

 

 Posted by Mark Dennehy at 14:05  Tagged with: ,

Peashooting

 General, humour, NTSA and sports administration, Peashooter  No Responses »
Mar 142011
 

One of the many funny jokes airgun shooters get from people who’ve never tried the sport because airguns aren’t loud enough for them, is the title of “Peashooter”.

I’ve been thinking about that, and I’ve had a fun thought.

How about the NTSA – or one of the airgun clubs – brings in something akin to the old DURC Standards, namely the “Pea Shooter” title?

See, here’s the thing. Your average garden pea is about 8mm in diameter. That’s just inside the 10.5mm diameter of the 8 ring on an air rifle target:

10mAR Pea Target

In fact, if my math is right, you have to shoot a 8.4 or higher to hit the area on the target that’s the size of your average garden pea. Which is about the 516/336 level in air rifle, which is a good point for a mid-range novice prize.

Seriously – this might be a neat way to get people to enjoy the first few months of the sport – get some badges made up, like the old DURC standards, it’d be easy enough to measure off the electronic targets, no extra prizes, just a list of “pea shooters” published in the results and rankings, that sort of thing…

 Posted by Mark Dennehy at 14:44  Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

NTSA Air Rifle Classification List March 2011

 General, NTSA and sports administration  No Responses »
Mar 112011
 

The new NTSA air rifle classification list is out. From the NTSA website:

The latest NTSA Air Rifle Classification List is now available, valid from 1st March 2011.

It’s neck and neck between DFST and WTSC at the top of Class A, with Defence Forces’ Ray Kane currently the top shooter in the country.

Class B is dominated by the college clubs, with by UCD’s John Lancaster leading the way and a hatful of both DURC and UCDRC shooters snapping at his heels.

Full list available to read here.

I’m just scraping into Class A at the moment, but I’m improving…

1(3)Ray KaneDFST96.6A
2(1)Laura CunninghamWTSC95.0A
3(2)Susan CunninghamWTSC94.5A
4(4)Paul O’BoyleWTSC93.8A
5(5)Paula CunninghamWTSC93.8A
6(6)Sean BaldwinDFST92.8A
7(8)Mark DennehyWTSC92.3A
8(7)John LancasterUCDRC91.5B

 


 Posted by Mark Dennehy at 01:32  Tagged with: , ,

Fianna Fail policy on firearms

 Politics  1 Response »
Feb 222011
 

From Irish Shooting Politics:

Sent by email:

Hi,

As an Olympic target shooter, I’d like to ask for details on Fianna Fail’s policies and plans with regards to the Firearms Act, the handgun ban and private firearms ownership in Ireland, and to invite you to engage with the target shooting and hunting community on shooting.boards.ie to discuss these matters. With some 200,000 licenced firearms owners in the state, I think such engagement would be appropriate during the election campaign.

Regards,

Received in response:

Dear Mr. Dennehy,
Thank you for your email dated 13th February 2011.

Fianna Fail has no plans to change existing legislation which we believe serves several very important functions, and strikes a balance between these and recreational interests generally. We are supportive of the sports of target shooting and hunting, and are mindful of their social importance, particularly in rural areas. We will view the website you refer to and would be happy to engage with any representations.

Yours sincerely,
Clare Minihane
Fianna Fáil Headquarters

 Posted by Mark Dennehy at 11:18  Tagged with:

Labour policy on firearms continued…

 Politics  No Responses »
Feb 192011
 

Desperately disappointing stuff to read.

From Irish Shooting Politics:

After the initial dialogue with them,  subsequent (and frankly, very disappointing) dialogue with Labour:

Thank you Demot. I’m sorry to say that I consider it a disappointing answer; a speech given two years ago in relation to a specific piece of legislation and a statement that no policy would be commented on without seeking professional advice is not the statement of the basic principles Labour would use when deciding on policy that I was hoping for.

I know that at present, none of the 200,000 licenced firearms holders in the state is likely to vote for a Green Party or Fianna Fail candidate; however, the choice between Fine Gael, Labour and Independent candidates, especially in rural constituencies, is one that clear support for sensible legislation in this area could swing in Labour’s favour – many of the 200,000 licenced firearms holders are farmers living in rural areas, and many of those who are not farmers also live in rural areas. Fine Gael’s stated policy on this is to leave the current legislation in place (a policy which few in the community would feel was fair or just or even effective) – surely this would be an opportunity for Labour to convince more undecided voters in rural constituencies to vote Labour?

Regards,

This was not responded to. Following some parallel discussions, the following was sent:

Some of us target shooters spoke with Charlie Flanagan of Fine Gael on the topic of firearms legislation in more detail yesterday. He was completely against alot of the policies enacted by Dermot Ahern. He committed to meet with us and discuss the finer points at length, and on specific details said he would like to see the issues around the muzzle energy limit for air rifles and other similar minor issues changed to encourage and expand the international and Olympic end of the sport. He also said that he met a few times with the Firearms Consultation Panel, representatives from clubs such as Hilltop and the MNSCI, and would like to see the Firearms Consultation Panel made a permanent feature in any future legislation drafting. He said in relation to the centerfire handgun ban that while he is fully aware that no legally held firearms have been used and admits that Minister Ahern targeted respectable shooters and not criminals in his efforts, that he would for the immediate future revert to the Garda Commissioner on certain matters, but agreed to a full review.

In light of this, could you please ask Pat Rabbitte to review his position on this matter?

Thank you,

In response:

I really do not have any more to add to what we have already sent.

Pondering whether or not it was understood how large the demographic involved was, this was sent:

Dermot, there are 200,000 licenced firearms holders in the state. We worked before with Labour (both Brendan Howlin in 2006 and Pat Rabbitte in 2009) to good effect, now we’re looking for a committment from Labour to continue that work and fix broken legislation and you basicly haven’t given it — but Fine Gael have. Who would you advise us to vote for?

And this was received:

There is a commitment to work with stakeholders on the issues. I just cannot confirm an outcome at this stage.

At this point I thought there might have been a miscommunication earlier, so I sought to clarify:

Dermot, I didn’t see any commitment in our email exchange – all you sent was that whomever the Minister was would have to take professional advice and Garda advice and you referred me to a two-year-old speech that didn’t cover (and couldn’t cover) recent issues. There was no commitment and you didn’t lay out what Labour’s principles were on firearms policy.

Look, right now what we’ve been given a commitment on by Fine Gael is:

  • to meet with the shooting community (via the Firearms Consultation Panel) and discuss the finer points at length
  • to see the Firearms Consultation Panel made a permanent feature in any future legislation drafting.
  • to fully review the centerfire handgun ban.

And we had a statement that in principle, they would like to see the minor changes we sought to expand Olympic air rifle shooting.

Can Labour give the same committment and can Labour agree to that same statement?

No response was received to this prior to the release of this document from the NARGC, so this was sent to obtain a response on that document:

Dermot, reminding you first of all that there are some 200,000 licenced firearms holders in Ireland and some 600,000 involved in fieldsports in Ireland, could you please respond to the email below and to the attached document (which was released today by the National Association of Regional Game Councils) please?

The responses will go up on http://guns.ie and http://shooting.boards.ie (which is the discussion forum used by target shooters and hunters in Ireland).

Thank you,

And this was the sole response:

We have responded to this before.

Based on this, it seems that on target shooting issues at least, Labour cannot be recommended as a first choice for shooters, and Fine Gael would seem the more logical choice; at least based on election manifestos.

 Posted by Mark Dennehy at 13:28  Tagged with:

Labour policy on firearms

 Politics  No Responses »
Feb 182011
 

From Irish Shooting Politics:

Labour policy on firearms

Quantcast
An initial reply was received via Twitter from Labour:

@MarkDennehy Sorry for the delay on this Mark, we should be with you tomorrow.

@MarkDennehy This is our latest statement on Firearms policy. http://labr.ie/e53NtO I’ll forward you a link to the relevant debate shortly.

@MarkDennehy And here, http://labr.ie/glsLZm is the debate where Pat Rabbitte attempted to exempt sporting guns from the legislation.

This seemed promising so I asked if they could answer some more specific questions.

@MarkDennehy Of course. Could you forward your questions to info@labour.ie please? Twitter doesn’t suit detailed answers.

I forwarded on this email:

As discussed on Twitter, I’d like to ask for some further details with respect to your party’s intentions if a Labour TD were appointed as Minister for Justice in the area of the Firearms Act?
For example:

  • Would there be plans to increase the current level of regulation or to roll back the current level in order to harmonise our regulations with other EU states?
  • Would (s)he be willing to remove centerfire target pistols from the Restricted Firearms list, thus allowing them to be licenced again?
  • Would (s)he be willing to deregulate target shooting airguns up to 7.5 Joules of muzzle energy as opposed to the current 1 Joule permitted under the Act in order to promote Olympic target shooting in Ireland?
  • Would they address the issues raised by medical associations regarding the application for a firearms licence and its implicit – but deemed insufficient by the GPs – granting of permission to Gardai to access medical records?
  • Would they be willing to widen the remit of the Firearms Consultation Panel, to make it a permanent body to facilitate access to technical expertise for the Department and to strengthen communications links between the target shooting sports governing bodies and the Department and the Gardai to ensure the smooth working of the Firearms Act?
  • What would they intend to do at a strategic level to alleviate the current problems with licencing which have resulted in nearly 200 cases being taken against Garda Superintendents in the District Courts at great expense to all?

Thank you,

And received this reply today:

Thank you for your message to the Labour Party. Pat Rabbitte our Spokesperson on Justice has asked me to refer you to his Second Stage speech when Bill was going through the Dail.

Whoever is Minister for Justice will have to take professional and Garda advice on the detail of this.

I attach the extract from the Dail Debate on the issue.

http://www.oireachtas.ie/viewdoc.asp?fn=/documents/bills28/bills/2009/2909/document1.htm

Yours sincerely,

Dermot Lacey

This was not a very useful answer, and so I responded:

Thank you for your reply Dermot, but I’m afraid that it doesn’t address or answer any of the questions I posed, and Pat Rabbitte’s speech on the Second Stage of the 2009 Act couldn’t address several of the points I was asking about because they didn’t arise at the time.

For example, the current issues with licencing which have led to nearly 200 cases being taken against Garda Superintendents and Chief Superintendents in the District and High Courts, simply were not arising at the time that Pat Rabbitte made that speech.

Also, several of those points require no consultation with professional groups or the Gardai in order to form an opinion on.

For example, making the Firearms Consultation Panel (a panel of representatives from the various shooting governing bodies as well as the Department of Sport, the Department of Justice, the Gardai and other stakeholders such as the IFA) a permanent panel rather than one which would be dissolved following the final commencement of the last parts of the 2006 Act, does not require outside consultation to form a policy on because the decision to extend it or dissolve it is purely a decision made on the basis of how Labour would intend to consult with professional groups and the Gardai should a Labour TD be appointed Minister for Justice, and surely they would already know how they intended to talk to people.

I understand completely that technical proposals in law would entail the seeking of professional and operational advice from various sources; however overall intentions and strategies are not nearly so complex.

I would appreciate it if you could refer the question back to Pat Rabbitte as the current spokesperson for Justice in Labour, and ask him if he could provide a more considered reply. Given that some 200,000 voters hold firearms licences in Ireland at the moment, it would seem to be worth at few more moments of his time, depsite the enormous pressure he’s under with the election campaign at the moment.

I would also like to extend an invitation to the Labour party to discuss the topic on http://shooting.boards.ie with a representative cross-section of the 200,000 licenced firearms holders.

Thank you,

And the reply was:

Mark,

The previous reply is the considered reply from Pat Rabbitte and that is the current position.

Dermot

I have repeated my request for further consideration to be made; if I receive a response, I’ll post it here.

 Posted by Mark Dennehy at 14:24  Tagged with:

Fine Gael policy on firearms

 Politics  No Responses »
Feb 142011
 

From Irish Shooting Politics:

Received today by email (beating the response from Labour to the email inbox):

Dear Mark,
Thank you for your e-mail. Fine Gael is supportive of target shooting and the use of firearms by sport clubs. However, we also recognize that there is a real need for strict regulation and control of firearms. If elected to government, Fine Gael would continue regulating firearms, while giving due regard to those using them for sport, so as not to hinder there participation in events.
Sincerely,
Ashley Lewis
Fine Gael  Campaign 2011

And responded to:

Thank you for your response Ashley, but could I ask for some further details with respect to your party’s intentions if a Fine Gael TD were appointed as Minister for Justice in the area of the Firearms Act?
For example:

    • Would there be plans to increase the current level of regulation or to roll back the current level in order to harmonise our regulations with other EU states?
    • Would (s)he be willing to remove centerfire target pistols from the Restricted Firearms list, thus allowing them to be licenced again?
    • Would (s)he be willing to deregulate target shooting airguns up to 7.5 Joules of muzzle energy as opposed to the current 1 Joule permitted under the Act in order to promote Olympic target shooting in Ireland?
    • Would they address the issues raised by medical associations regarding the application for a firearms licence and its implicit – but deemed insufficient by the GPs – granting of permission to Gardai to access medical records?
    • Would they be willing to widen the remit of the Firearms Consultation Panel, to make it a permanent body to facilitate access to technical expertise for the Department and to strengthen communications links between the target shooting sports governing bodies and the Department and the Gardai to ensure the smooth working of the Firearms Act?
    • What would they intend to do at a strategic level to alleviate the current problems with licencing which have resulted in nearly 200 cases being taken against Garda Superintendents in the District Courts at great expense to all?

And responded back:

Dear Mark,

Thank you for your queries. At this junction Fine Gael has no plans to change the current regulations and legislation concerning firearms. We would welcome any proposals you may have on how to amend current firearms legislation.

Sincerely,
Ashley Lewis
Fine Gael Campaign 2011

And a final reply from myself:

Thank you Ashley, but if Fine Gael has no plans to change the status quo, it would seem that that constitutes a plan to maintain the status quo.

However, I would like to invite you to engage with the shooting community on the topic on http://shooting.boards.ie. Given that there are approximately 200,000 licenced firearms holders in the state, it might be considered worthwhile.

Regards,

Further responses to be posted if they arrive..

 Posted by Mark Dennehy at 18:11

General Election 2011

 General, Politics  No Responses »
Feb 142011
 

From Irish Shooting Politics:

Once again, the country is going to the polls. And once again, some 200,000 shooters aren’t hearing very much on the candidates’ parties’ policies with regards to firearms licencing and so forth.

Thought I’d ask, and see who responded first and fastest and most favourably, so on twitter the following was sent to Labour, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, all at the same time:

http://twitter.com/#!/MarkDennehy/status/36816946808754177

@fiannafailparty What is #FiannaFail‘s policy on the Firearms Act, the handgun ban and private firearms ownership?#ge11

http://twitter.com/#!/MarkDennehy/status/36815632360017920

@finegael What is #FineGeal‘s policy on the Firearms Act, the handgun ban and private firearms ownership? #ge11

http://twitter.com/#!/MarkDennehy/status/36814738566561792

@labour What is #Labour‘s policy on the Firearms Act, the handgun ban and private firearms ownership? #ge11

To give credit where it’s due, Labour did in fact respond in minutes, saying that they’d need to get back with a more complete answer and that wouldn’t happen until Monday; fair enough. No response from Fianna Fail or Fine Gael either, but just in case that they’re not as au fait with twitter as you’d expect, this was sent to their email accounts as well:

Hi,

As an Olympic target shooter, I’d like to ask for details on Fine Gael’s policies and plans with regards to the Firearms Act, the handgun ban and private firearms ownership in Ireland, and to invite you to engage with the target shooting and hunting community on shooting.boards.ie to discuss these matters. With some 200,000 licenced firearms owners in the state, I think such engagement would be appropriate during the election campaign.

Regards,

If there’s a response, I’ll post it here, and over on shooting.boards.ie where all three parties will be invited to engage with the shooting community on their firearms policies. The cynic would insist such an effort would be wasted; though experience would tend to weigh the cynic’s viewpoint heavily in this area, the experiment does still seem worthy of an attempt at this time.

 Posted by Mark Dennehy at 18:07  Tagged with:

ISSF to ban new composite materials for jackets and trousers?

 General, NTSA and sports administration  No Responses »
Jan 062010
 

From Stirton.com and shooting.boards.ie and TargetTalk, the following disturbing bit of news comes from Rajmond Debevec:

Shooters, coaches!

Please read the attachment. I call you to comment mostly the proposals of new equipment restrictions.
I was shocked reading those irrational ideas of the committee members. If the ISSF accepts something like that, we all can throw away our jackets, trousers, boots…we ‘ve just bought, worth thousands of Pounds or Euros.
I can’t find out the interest which suppose to lead them to bring out such ideas. On a first glance it looks like some producers with good conections want to increase their income on this way, but I simply can’t believe it.

My personal opinion is clear for a long time – we don’t need any changes without reasonable cause. Any change should serve only to comercialisation and increasing the professionalism of shooting sport. So called ‘experts’ from the committees have many ideas but I really can’t see development getting for example thinner trousers without padding on butt and knees and other proposals.

Best regards,

Rajmond Debevec

Attached was the following set of minutes from the ISSF technical committee. In short, the proposals are for the ISSF:

  • to ban shooting boots which rise above the ankle or which do not flex at the ball of the foot
  • to ban the use of the new composite materials in jackets and trousers and to require all new materials to be pre-approved by the ISSF
  • to reduce again the thickness of shooting trousers and the shooting jacket (from 2.5mm/5mm to 2mm/4mm)
  • to remove all pads from the shooting trousers, but allow seperate pads between heel and seat and between knee and ground when in kneeling
  • all changes to take effect from Jan 1, 2010

Here’s the PDF file of the minutes to download and read.

Some of the other minor points from the document:

  • Floppy hats, visors and the like definitely may not touch the rearsight as part of your shot routine
  • The pocket on the jacket gets to stay
  • No more reinforcement on trousers – they must be 2mm/4mm thickness all over
  • Undergarment thickness limits are also reduced from 2.5mm/5mm to 2mm/4mm
  • Kinesio taping is banned
  • The ISSF technical committee needs to create its own private internet forum to host discussions as emails with salient details are being lost
  • No sponsor/manufacturer marks permitted on rearsight (or foresight) blinders anymore
  • The deduction of 2 points for applying any kind of sticky substance to the jacket, pads, shoes or floor is now removed and rules 6.10.6.5.1 and 6.10.6.5.2 cover everything (prior to this, it was 2 points deducted for rifle, but not for pistol – now it’s all down to the Jury to issue warnings and deduct points)
  • No removable inserts in boots – so no more odour eaters? Kitbags are going to reek even more than they do now.
  • New finals procedures were proposed (but not decided upon), which are almost the same as for Olympic Recurve Archery, where after the qualification round, you have a pairs knock-out tournament for the medal places
 Posted by Mark Dennehy at 16:13
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