Mr. Brian Conroy:

I thank the Chairman and the members of the committee for inviting gunshop.ieto present our submission on firearms licensing. Due to business travel arrangements made some time ago, Mr. Frank Brennan of gunshop.ieis unable to address the committee on this date. He would be available to attend any future meeting.

I am a registered firearms dealer, a family man and also a commissioned officer of the Defence Forces with 16 years of service to the State. Some may see a little irony in the fact that gunshop.iehas asked another firearms dealer to present its submission to the Oireachtas justice committee. While it is true to say that as firearms dealers we compete on a business footing, it should also be noted that as sportsmen, engaged in a business established solely to support our chosen sport, we have a great deal of mutual respect. Hence, I am present today to represent the position of gunshop.ie.

We wish first to express our complete disagreement with the Garda Síochána and Department of Justice and Equality working group report on the licensing of firearms. This report seeks to create fear where none should exist. It is entirely biased and was constructed with little or no input from the groups which it would impact most. Indeed, we are aware through our colleagues within the sporting groups that only a token gesture of consultation would be afforded to the sporting stakeholders and that it would be disingenuous.

Many well-respected sports people will speak for our sport and elaborate on the social good which derives from it. Accordingly, I will concentrate on the effect which this report may have upon dealers in sporting firearms. Amendments in legislation in 2009 saw a ban introduced on the licensing of centre fire handguns. As a result, no new entrants could participate in this sport. Even the sharing of a centre fire handgun on a licensed shooting range was made illegal.

A concession, however, was made toward the sport of handgun shooting in that a sports person could apply to license a handgun which uses rimfire ammunition which is of a smaller calibre. This concession was further underpinned by the publication of the Garda Commissioner’s guidelines on firearms licensing. In this document, a list of small calibre handguns used worldwide in sport shooting was published. This list was known as annexe F. Since that date, the guideline document became a mantra in many Garda districts with Garda licensing persons sticking slavishly to it. In fact, the list contained several firearms no longer in production. In late 2014, the annexe F list was withdrawn without any consultation with stakeholders in any section of sport shooting. As a result, the stocks of gunshop.ieare now in limbo. We have purchased firearms which must be held with wholesalers in Europe until such time as a domestic licence is granted. These firearms are bought and paid for but now are proving impossible to sell because of the move by the Department without any consultation with the stakeholders.

The Garda-Department report seems to suggest a pressure release valve to the situation is to simply deflate the business of firearms dealers and have the stocks of heretofore legally licensed firearms sent to the North of Ireland. I can assure the committee having spoken with numerous firearms dealers in Northern Ireland that this is a complete non-runner. Strict quotas exist there and the pricing offered, even for firearms in which there was interest, would be only 10% to 15% of the value of the firearm.

We fear any such immediate moves will result in certain categories of firearms dealers being asked to store firearms in number, thus creating a security risk. It should be noted the Garda and Department seem to regard the granting of a firearms licence as a gift and, accordingly, that it can be taken back. While sporting firearms licenceholders do certainly acknowledge it is indeed a privilege to be considered competent to safely hold a firearm, they do not regard it as any kind of gift. It is not given freely as is the very definition of a gift. It is in fact typically hard won having spent several months in the application process and a significant amount of money for the licence, as well as the ancillary security upgrading which surrounds any licence application.

The Garda-Department document refers to the UK handgun ban and speaks of its success. It was not a success. For ten years after the ban, gun crime continued to rise. Only a significant policing policy shift eventually saw the gun crime figures there plateau. This document is awash with unsupported statistics. We note it does not spell out the nature of the compensation scheme arrived at in the UK, whereby sporting shooters were compensated financially for not only their firearms, but the ancillary accessories purchased in support of their sport. A similar package would be the least sporting shooters here will demand.

As for the trade, the committee must note the 200 plus firearms dealers to be affected will seek to pursue the defence of our livelihoods through the courts. Having invested heavily to meet storage criteria and security standards set down by An Garda Síochána and the Department of Justice and Equality, this report proposes to remove the very mechanism by which we could recoup the investment.

Some strategists say the best defence is a good offence. We earnestly believe this report is an offence. It is a slight on sporting society and is made to deflect attention from the poor administration of the firearms licensing duty of An Garda Síochána. We believe this report is grounded in interpersonal differences arising out of over 600 court challenges to the application of the legislation. We respectfully ask the committee to consider the setting aside of this report. We feel it is not a balanced presentation of the facts. We ask that genuine engagement with the sporting and trade interests be sought and that such engagement be incorporated into the formulation of future firearms licensing strategy.