WARNING TO ALL GUN OWNERS

guns4fun

Hi all,I have recently been made aware of some members who have been contacted by pm in relation to firearms they have up for sale here.
The sender of these msgs have offered huge sums of money for firearms and want to get the owners to sell without any licence or paperwork.
I just want to make ye all aware of this and maybe we should edit our profiles and not disclose our location/phone numbers/email etc.
Any such contact should be notified to the admins of this site without delay.
Take care of new members offering such money or looking for info on such.
It just proves that some people are watching this forum and trawling for info,it would be wise to review our security and movements just to be safe.
Be careful when posting pics of your new toys and when selling,basic info only and if the buyer is not known on this forum then arrange to meet buyer at a safe location,even your local garda station.
happy and safe new year to you all.....anon.

bitemybanger

For security reasons maybe a similar approach to the Soccer forum whereas you have to request access to the forum and it is then approved or declined by the mods based on a criteria, ie: must have 50+ posts on boards, read and understand the charter and therefore they have a better understanding of how to use the forums features like the FAQ thread or the search bar.
I don't think it would deter anyone new to the sport but would definatly deter trolls and the type of people trying to look for access for unlawful reasons.
It would make sense giving the nature of the forum and tools used in our trade so to speak.
Just a thought?

Gonzor

bitemybanger wrote: »

For security reasons maybe a similar approach to the Soccer forum whereas you have to request access to the forum and it is then approved or declined by the mods based on a criteria, ie: must have 50+ posts on boards, read and understand the charter and therefore they have a better understanding of how to use the forums features like the FAQ thread or the search bar.
I don't think it would deter anyone new to the sport but would definatly deter trolls and the type of people trying to look for access for unlawful reasons.
It would make sense giving the nature of the forum and tools used in our trade so to speak.
Just a thought?

Thats a great idea bitemybanger. Id love to see something like that setup. I mean if the lads doing football can have it then theres no reason we cant....

doyle61

Tbh I don't agree fully with that. Ye good point about having to be admitted by the mods, but what about someone new to boards who just wants to post and read in the shooting forum and has no interest in anything else on boards. By having to clock up say 50 posts in forums they have no interest in they could be seen as a troll themselves as it could be seen that their posts are not constructive if you know what I mean. Now I know it wouldn't affect me or most posters here but it will end up affecting lads in future..............genuine shooting lads. Just my 2cent worth

daveob007

+1 on that,maybe there should be some application form required for the shooting forum only where any boards member or person interested in shooting would have to give all their contact details and the mods verify them before being allowed access to the shooting forum either as poster or first timer,also current members of shooting forum could block non verified members from sending pm or making any contact.
sad that we have to concider this at all but our safety and safety of the public has to come first.

doyle61

doyle61 wrote: »

Tbh I don't agree fully with that. Ye good point about having to be admitted by the mods, but what about someone new to boards who just wants to post and read in the shooting forum and has no interest in anything else on boards. By having to clock up say 50 posts in forums they have no interest in they could be seen as a troll themselves as it could be seen that their posts are not constructive if you know what I mean. Now I know it wouldn't affect me or most posters here but it will end up affecting lads in future..............genuine shooting lads. Just my 2cent worth

To be honest. If your only interested in shooting fair enough. But there's about 10-15 forums on this that I'd post in or read. If you have nothing other than Shooting/Hunting to post about then you need to widen your horizons. There's Angling, Archery, Oudoor Pursuits, Survivalism & Self Sufficiency, Nature & Bird watching. They're all kind of linked to Hunting or shooting so it's not like we're in a niche sport that nothing else will interest us.

daveob007

Deleted User wrote: »

To be honest. If your only interested in shooting fair enough. But there's about 10-15 forums on this that I'd post in or read. If you have nothing other than Shooting/Hunting to post about then you need to widen your horizons. There's Angling, Archery, Oudoor Pursuits, Survivalism & Self Sufficiency, Nature & Bird watching. They're all kind of linked to Hunting or shooting so it's not like we're in a niche sport that nothing else will interest us.

true enough,i have used boards for many things like tech,social,region etc,our security is common sense and has been covered extensively here,blocking troller accounts can easily be done by the mods but nothing to stop them opening new accounts for same purpose,maybe their ip address could be blocked,might be a start.

bitemybanger

I am very much into my shooting but limit my posts here for the very reason of security, it's too easy for people to see exatly what type of firearms we have in our homes from the hardware thread including some very tasty restricted firearms, large calibre rifles and even pistols.
Most of us also use Adverts.ie with the same usernames and buy and sell stuff to strangers regulary... You see where I'm going?

doyle61

Don't know if my post came across wrong or not but I'm fully in favour of having shooting/hunting restricted but I just think that having a min amount of posts isn't the right way of going about it. Take another senario; I'm sure there are lads who like to read all the posts in this section but for whatever (ligimate) reason they just dont do write ups. Are these lads to be excluded also????

johngalway

Verified my eye.

Anyone can be anyone on line, restricted access is a waste of time.

guns4fun

Really what it comes down to when selling firearms is common sense,meeting place,price offer,most buyers try to knock down the price thats normal but when you are offered more than the asking price then you surely smell a rat,
I agree that giving too much info here could be dangerous,if any of ye is made an offer that looks too good to be true you must make it clear to the interested party that you will only deal with the sale properly and within the law,,these guys might be criminals or people who think buying a gun for protection is ok but what ever the reason they must be sent a clear message that we do not do illegal stuff.
Furthermore if you are tempted by the big offer and you are stupid enough to do a deal outside the law you must remember this,,you are breaking the law and will end up in prison,or if you are selling to a criminal you have no way of knowing if you will get the money or not.
its down to our vigilance to report all such offers to the mods and tell others whats going on. stopping the fishers is a matter of debate.

lar203

mr mc arter comes to mind , selling or buying should be done in a dealers

Glensman

The shooting/hunting section of Boards is the only part I read or post in.
There is no need to restrict it. I don't think it is workable/enforceable anyway.

bitemybanger

doyle61 wrote: »

Don't know if my post came across wrong or not but I'm fully in favour of having shooting/hunting restricted but I just think that having a min amount of posts isn't the right way of going about it. Take another senario; I'm sure there are lads who like to read all the posts in this section but for whatever (ligimate) reason they just dont do write ups. Are these lads to be excluded also????

No I hear ya
I think the 50+ posts would insure members wishing to access fully understand and respect the charter as they will have a little experience posting.
It might not be the best option if this forum was to become restricted but it would certainly deter anyone naughty gaining access as I could not see them posting more than 50 posts. You can tell alot about someone in 50 posts, weather they have any previous infractions/bans, if they are abusive or a total troll, all this would be obvious within 50 or less posts.

Spunk84

Just use a RFD to work out the transaction or viewing of the firearm...Simples...or say u will meet the buyer at the Gard station and see the real buyer come forward. I never let anyone come to the house unless I meet them first, I will know in the first 10-15mins what there like...

When I was selling my dog a few months ago had the same thing happen,so it's not just firearms..

guns4fun

the only thing i can say is that the buyers in these cases had 0 posts and only joined in the past 2 or 3 months.

bitemybanger

Lads I don't just mean buying/selling firearms, that's an obvious one.
I mean buying or selling anything on here or Adverts.ie
It's too easy to see who owns what, organise to buy anything be it a phone, bike, car, laptop, whatever from your ads and follow you home.
Which can be done by anybody without even setting up a boards account and just having a bogus adverts account.

landkeeper

what a load of rubbish imho it's the nanny state mentality again
you'll end up with a forum that is so restricted and complex no-one will bother with it there are enough users allready who have departed due to ###### thought police and over moderation
yes there is a risk with selling stuff firearm related on the internet or anywhere for that matter but WE are grown ups and are able to make decisions and actions ourselves to offset risks surely it is OUR choice what we post or don't

Manic Moran

What, exactly, is ' someone naughty' going to achieve on this forum? I doubt anyone here will be foolish enough to do something illegal, and few would be foolish enough to post up the location of their arms locker. The risk of being ' tracked' to your home from something you've advertised on Boards (two posts up) is no worse than the risk of being followed home from the range. The soccer forum is a different matter, the lockout is done for the smooth running of the forum, not out of fear of something.

Given that the occasional chancer doesn't particularly disrupt the forum, and spammers are an occupational hazard across all fora, the only advantage would be if you were afraid that someone would post something of negative PR consequence. How often has that happened on here?

I am reminded of the military's ban on using social media. They were so paranoid that troops would either reveal classified information or post a video of killing a puppy or something that they completely buried the possible PR benefits. Took them years to figure it out.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but is this forum not the easiest and most accessible way for non shooters in Ireland to have any exposure to the sport? It's under siege already, what does it tell even veteran boards users? That the shooting forum is an arcane, inaccessible site, so whatever they're hiding in there, it can't be good. Maybe those politicians are right!

Or, leave it open as it is now. I occasionally see threads on other fora where a response is akin to "actually, you're wrong about Irish firearms, click this link to the shooting forum and check it out." And when they do that, or if people just happen to be idly clicking through fora to check them out, what are they going to see? A group of Boards users who happen to be huntsmen or target shooters being all mature and responsible talking about their firearms as if they're the most normal things in the world, which they are. Nothing different to the Motors forum, a group of people talking legal, fun, practical machinery.

How does that perception differ from that of a closed forum, even if the ' rules for entry' are a near rubber stamp?

Daft idea. Continue to be polite and law abiding. The rules here are no different than out in real life.

NTM

Spunk84

If anything happens in terms of a crime I'm sure boards.ie would be able to bring up all info for the gards i.e ip and were to locate the dodgy people...... Pretty much common since people,if it sounds to good to be true then it is........As LK said above.

Spunk84

Manic Moran wrote: »

What, exactly, is ' someone naughty' going to achieve on this forum? I doubt anyone hee will be foolish enough to do something illegal, and few would be foolish enough to post up the location of their arms locker. The soccer forum is a different matter, the lockout is done for the smooth running of the forum, not out of fear of something.

Given that the occasional chancer doesn't particularly disrupt the forum, and spammers are an occupational hazard across all fora, the only advantage would be if you were afraid that someone would post something of negative PR consequence. How often has that happened on here?

I am reminded of the military's ban on using social media. They were so paranoid that troops would either reveal classified information or post a video of killing a puppy or something that they completely buried the possible PR benefits. Took them years to figure it out.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but is this forum not the easiest and most accessible way for non shooters in Ireland to have any exposure to the sport? It's under siege already, what does it tell even veteran boards users? That the shooting forum is an arcane, inaccessible site, so whatever they're hiding in there, it can't be good. Maybe those politicians are right!

Or, leave it open as it is now. I occasionally see threads on other fora where a response is akin to "actually, you're wrong about Irish firearms, click this link to the shooting forum and check it out." And when they do that, or if people just happen to be idly clicking through fora to check them out, what are they going to see? A group of Boards users who happen to be huntsmen or target shooters being all mature and responsible talking about their firearms as if they're the most normal things in the world, which they are. Nothing different to the Motors forum, a group of people talking legal, fun, practical machinery.

How does that perception differ from that of a closed forum, even if the ' rules for entry' are a near rubber stamp?

Daft idea. Continue to be polite and law abiding. The rules here are no different than out in real life.

NTM

I vote for MM for moderator on the hunting forum hehehe nice one,a mod with a bit of sense:)

daveob007

this thread was obviously started to warn members of possible illegal activity and to give us the heads up.
it makes sense for us to use our common sense when advertising on the net whatever we are selling,,the mods have all the info regarding ip addresses etc if they need it,,just be careful out there is the message.

Cass

Going to try and address a few posts here.

bitemybanger wrote: »

For security reasons maybe a similar approach to the Soccer forum whereas you have to request access to the forum and it is then approved or declined by the mods based on a criteria, ie: must have 50+ posts on boards,

That works for Soccer, but would not be workable for shooting. As with many users i joined up a few years ago when looking on the web for some info. Had i needed to go through a "probation period" or have X amount of posts, etc before being allowed to join i would have not bothered, and gotten my info elsewhere

doyle61 wrote: »

Tbh I don't agree fully with that. Ye good point about having to be admitted by the mods, but what about someone new to boards who just wants to post and read in the shooting forum and has no interest in anything else on boards.

Thats the other point. I joined Boards for the shooting forum only. Since then i have gotten into other fora, but over time. To ask a new user to post elsewhere for 25, 50, 100 posts then come talk to us would again discourage new users joining up.

daveob007 wrote: »

............maybe there should be some application form required for the shooting forum only where any boards member or person interested in shooting would have to give all their contact details and the mods verify them before being allowed access to the shooting forum .......

Not sure on the legalities, but it may breach the data protection act, and if not it would definitely breach the forum rules about asking a user for personal info. If a person gives this info in a post, PM, etc then thats their business, but we cannot ask for it, and expecting it as part of the "sign up" is the same thing.

Deleted User wrote: »

To be honest. If your only interested in shooting fair enough. But there's about 10-15 forums on this that I'd post in or read. If you have nothing other than Shooting/Hunting to post about then you need to widen your horizons..

That may suit some from the start, but as said above most people even outside of shooting start off looking at a specific forum then widen their views/forua.

johngalway wrote: »

Verified my eye.

Anyone can be anyone on line, restricted access is a waste of time.

More or less.

guns4fun wrote: »

Really what it comes down to when selling firearms is common sense,

Correct.

Furthermore if you are tempted by the big offer and you are stupid enough to do a deal outside the law you must remember this,,you are breaking the law and will end up in prison,or if you are selling to a criminal you have no way of knowing if you will get the money or not..

Taking the above into account do not forget, should anyone be foolish enough to be tempted by such offers that if someone is seeking a firearm, illegally, they will not register the firearm and you will still be the licensed holder. Try cancelling the license - what do you put down for the new owner? IOW it will always come back to bite you in the ass.

Yer all intelligent enough to know this simply should not be entetained. If you get such an offer, PLEASE, inform the mods, CatMods immediateyl and it will be dealt with quickly, and efficiently.

guns4fun wrote: »

the only thing i can say is that the buyers in these cases had 0 posts and only joined in the past 2 or 3 months.

Its unfortunate, but not so prolific that privatising the forum would solve it. It would close off the forum to the 99.9% of genuine lads/ladies.

landkeeper wrote: »

you'll end up with a forum that is so restricted and complex no-one will bother with it

Correct.

WE are grown ups and are able to make decisions and actions ourselves to offset risks surely it is OUR choice what we post or don't

Manic Moran wrote:

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but is this forum not the easiest and most accessible way for non shooters in Ireland to have any exposure to the sport? It's under siege already, what does it tell even veteran boards users? That the shooting forum is an arcane, inaccessible site, so whatever they're hiding in there, it can't be good. Maybe those politicians are right!

Precisely. Well said.

Other than easy access for newbies, its also important to be open, and non secretive from a Pr point of view. We take part in a legal sport so we definitely do not need to give those that would seek to portray us as "evil" an ammo (excuse the pun).


In relation to this, and what i said above lads, there are simple steps to take to ensure your safety fro a forum point of view.

• Do not give out personal info via PM or openly on a post.
• Meet any person in a dealers, range, club, public place.
• Never meet anyone on your own.
• Give out no contact info via any method. This can be exchanged when meeting up at the public place.
• Report ANY, an ALL dodgey posts, PMs. Even if you think someone else might have done it or its not really important enough. Report it, and include any messages with the report.
• Do not disclose the location of you, your firearms, etc. This means remove anything in your profile that identifies where you are/might be.
• When posting pictures ensure serial numbers, licenses, forms, etc have all relevant/important info blocked out. Try not to include any identifiable landmarks in photos.

As was already said this thread is about your own personal safety. The features on this forum are of secondary concern as we can control the forum. On that note it must be pointed out that while the mods, CatMods, and admins, can help we are not the police/Gardai. We, obviously, have no power to enact any real world changes. Even PMs can be sent by a user with no posts, so again making the forum a private, restricted access one will not eliminate this issue.

Be careful, be safe.

Tackleberry.

just a taught, if and when i see a person posting on boards if i want i can look at there profile and from this i can build my own profile of what your into and what you might own boats,guns etc...you get my point,
I'm sure boards can set it up that this information alone can only veiwed between friends,i note that there is a friends section... hope you see my point.

Cass

Tackleberry. wrote: »

I'm sure boards can set it up that this information alone can only veiwed between friends,.

Its already set up.

If you click on "User CP", then look at the second option on the list on the left of the screen titled "Profile Privacy". Click it and it will bring you onto a list of drop down options. Here you can select which group of people can view what about you, your profile page, photos, etc.

One word of note though. If you, like me, use the pictures in you albums to post on the open forums, and you restrict this to friends/contacts only then anyone not a friend or ontact will not view them.

Other than that it up to the user how much they want to share.

Sparks

And folks, just to remind you, rule number two in the for sale/wanted forum is (and has been since the start of the for sale/wanted forum):

Firearms Sales should be done via RFD

Any firearms or components of firearms (ie anything that requires a licence or Garda Authorisation) should be sold via a registered firearms dealer.
When posting these items for sale here you should have:

• Make/Model of firearm
• Description of firearm
• Asking price for firearm
• Details of Firearms Dealer being used
• Any other relevant info

The reports we've been getting (and yes, the mods and admins are aware of the problem and have been discussing possible approaches to it for a while) are disturbing, but those guidelines above avoid the problems fairly well...

Tea drinker

daveob007 wrote: »

+1 on that,maybe there should be some application form required for the shooting forum only where any boards member or person interested in shooting would have to give all their contact details and the mods verify them before being allowed access to the shooting forum either as poster or first timer,also current members of shooting forum could block non verified members from sending pm or making any contact.
sad that we have to concider this at all but our safety and safety of the public has to come first.

I don't think giving away more personal details online adds to security. Hackers and guys lifting guns run in different circles, but why risk it?

I agree with the 50 post count, maybe 1 month membership too...

Vote 4 Pedro

bitemybanger wrote: »

Lads I don't just mean buying/selling firearms, that's an obvious one.
I mean buying or selling anything on here or Adverts.ie
It's too easy to see who owns what, organise to buy anything be it a phone, bike, car, laptop, whatever from your ads and follow you home.
Which can be done by anybody without even setting up a boards account and just having a bogus adverts account.

Anyone could sit outside a RFD and then follow you home from there if they really wanted to.

Dankskie

long time lurker first time poster:D

i did type up a proper response but my pos laptop crashed :mad:

so in short, if mods want to make the place safer please educate folks about exif data and geo tags. Atm with a ****ty free exif reader and with little computer know how a person can click through the pictures, get lucky and find a members location.

If a person is willing to contact members about buying guns, i dont think its unreasonable to think that they would take the time to buy the proper soft ware, learn how to use it and turn the various "post a pic threads" in to cough shopping list.

my 2c

Gonzor

How about this.

The regular shooting/hunting side of things you just ask for permission to get in and you get it. zero posts required.

Whereas the "shooting for sale and wanted" have a limit on that. Lets just say 25 posts. I know a lot of other websites do a similar thing to stop nuisance posters. And those websites seem to do just fine.

(Besides I think it might stop some of the spammers too, not long ago I posted "a wanted" item and within an hour or two I had an inbox full of messages all from members with 0 posts offering up stuff that was at best "similar" to what I wanted and in some cases complete opposite of what I had asked for.)

Honestly, I dont think the majority of people worry about getting robbed when they are selling the firearm... I think the big deal is this:

We (or I know I do) go to great lenghts to make sure neighbours and random people in street dont know I have firearms. I dont go walking down the road carrying the gun in my hands for all in sundry to see.

But yet here on boards those same people can cross over to the shooting section and backtrack through all my posts (which actually happened not long ago, someone took a dislike to me and decided to see could he dig up dirt)... The guy found out what exact guns I have. How many people live in the house with me... what I work at... what hours I work... etc

Obviously making shooting private isnt going to stop the determind theif, but then again, me hiding the guns from neighbours isnt going to stop me getting robbed either.... but I still do it. It gives me an little extra bit peice of mind.

Sparks

Perhaps I can clear up the queries about requiring some sort of criteria to be met before people can post or read in the shooting forums. I'll be concise in order to be definitive, please don't take it as being snarky:

Mod note: It's not going to happen. We have no interest in taking this forum outside and shooting it in the head, thankyouverymuch.

There are many reasons why not, here are a few to start with:

• It won't work. If you think boards.ie is the only place people could find information on you, you either never ever go to any other website and you have a very, very specialised setup indeed; or you're wrong. I'll bet all the money in my pockets against all the money in your pockets that it's the latter.
• Even if we restricted ourselves, other sites won't; and if we did restrict ourselves, we wouldn't be an open group that new shooters can come to to learn; we'd be a closed club of ould fellas chewing the cud. No thanks. We're the largest shooting forum in the country by a very large margin, and frankly we're the best for a very wide range of topics - none of us want to see that change, and we certainly don't want to deliberately destroy that.