Mr. Declan Keogh:

I would be delighted to answer Senator Bacik's question. I cannot give the percentage, but in our club and nationally, the National Association of Rifle and Pistol Clubs have evolved a programme, called "Women on Target", which has been in place since 2010. That programme is open to ladies only because we want to draw more people into the support. They have a focused firearms safety day in which they get to fire pistols and rifles. There is morning training on pistols and training in the afternoon on rifles. We have internationally recognised certified instructors instructing. Since 2010, we have put about 300 ladies through the programme in various clubs in the country. The uptake has been significant. We usually get about 20% of the participants at Women on Target programme.

Fortunately or unfortunately, their favoured firearm is the pistol. They are extremely good pistol shots. One of the consequences of the proposed amendments would be to destroy that aspect of the sport.