Mr. Joe Costello:

There are a number of issues with regard to security. I am not speaking on behalf of firearms dealers. The inevitable arrangement is that if one has a rifle, even an air rifle - some of us would have referred to them as pellet guns growing up, with all due respect to Mr. Dennehy and people who partake in the sport of Olympic air rifle, just to make clear what we are talking about - in one's house, one needs a gun safe. One needs a steel safe which has been properly scrutinised and passed, fixed solidly to the structure of the house. That is just for an air rifle. There are about four different levels of security requirement depending on what type of firearm one has. There is an actual safe storage requirement, because part of the work of the firearms consultative panel was to look at the various levels. A bolt-action rifle, such as a .22 that somebody could use for shooting rabbits or targets, would also require a gun safe. One would need an alarm. Generally, the crime prevention officer from the Garda would inspect the applicant's premises, check it was in a safe area, and ensure that sufficient precautions had been taken.

A great exception, which we find very disturbing and ambiguous, is that one is not required to have a safe for a single-barrel shotgun. Anybody who has ever seen the movies knows that a single-barrel shotgun and a hacksaw, which is pretty low-tech stuff, can be turned into one of the most lethal firearms in the world. Such firearms can punch a hole through the engine of a car. They are colossal. Yet they are not required to be kept in any form of gun safe or anything similar. Those are mostly owned by farmers. I am not castigating a particular group, but they are mostly owned by farmers for vermin control, for protection of their sheep against foxes and so on. The result is that often they are unguarded, available in farmhouses all over the country, and make a soft target. In the last two weeks, from a casual reading of the reports in the daily papers, there have been three or four firearms incidents involving stolen shotguns. When a bullet leaves the end of a barrel, the shape, size, colour or appearance of the gun does not really matter. It is the same thing, whether it is a .22 rifle or a .22 pistol. If one is a safe, sane person and judged as such by the Garda, one is at no greater risk with one than the other, just as if one is a safe driver, it does not matter what brand of car one drives. However, shotguns were cast in a very benign light. I was astounded that Superintendent Healy said, basically, that he did not see them as being of any concern, while he saw the other firearms as a great threat. The contrast is that the majority of pistols of any calibre, even the smaller ones such as .22s, are held in armouries on target ranges, which are of a very high standard and are also inspected. The rest are under very severe personal security requirements, with multiple alarms and so on.

I would like people to consider the reality. If people talk about the concealability of a short firearm, I would be willing to demonstrate with a deactivated firearm that in about five minutes, any member of the committee could turn an apparently very benign gun - the most common and cheapest is probably a Baikal hammer-action gun, which costs about €80 or €90 new - into something about eight inches long. That would be a horrendous firearm to be confronted with. Our security is second to none. It is inspected, it is a factor in the granting of our licences and it is a condition of our licence that we must fulfil and that we are happy to fulfil, because most of us have families. We do not want children to be exposed to these guns, we do not want any members of the public to be put in danger, we do not want to put ourselves in danger and we do not want to risk the loss of our property.