Mr. Fergus Healy:

One of the gravest concerns of the Garda Síochána is that we would have an atrocity of that nature in this jurisdiction. Public safety is a paramount issue when issuing these licences and is taken with great responsibility by those tasked with so doing. It is always at the back of one's mind as to what could happen, were one to license this gun and give it to a person. What will he or she do with it and will he or she use it in a responsible way? There is always that risk. The view of the Garda Síochána is that the more of these guns that are on licence, the greater the risk of something of this nature occurring within society.