Mr. Jeff McCann:

I support Mr. Tope in his discussion on a licensing authority that would be impartial and set clear specifications and guidelines. In my submission I mentioned the German model, in which there are a number of tiers of licensing, starting with meeting simple shotgun licensing requirements. There are also stringent requirements to be met within them for those who seek to own a licence. Looking at international best practice, Germany, Canada and New Zealand are all classified as having restrictive firearms policies and equal or lower firearms related crime rates to Ireland, while having much higher numbers of firearms per capita. This should be looked at and taken on board as a possible solution.