Deer Licence 2016/2017

Luckysasha

I remember when I applied for my .22lr rifle license I was having a chat with the FO Sargent and he saw on my FCA1 that the rifle was for pest control on the farm. He asked me what size the farm was and I told him it is X amount of acres. His reply was "That's grand sure your well over the 30 acres so" I took that to mean you had to have a farm bigger than 30 acres to use farm pest control as a reason for licensing a gun

Cass

A brilliant thing has happened over the last 10+ years or so. People have, for want of a better term, woken up.

We now no longer take what we are told as Gospel simply because the person telling us it has a uniform. Between discussion forums, FB, and other social media we can talk, share and help each other to understand what we are allowed to do, what is legal, what is in law and what is not.

The quick access we have to the legislation now counters the lies, half truths, makey-uppey laws, and pure sh*t we've been fed before. We can now call people on the stuff we used to take as right before, and not only call them on it tell them why they are wrong or more to the point why we are right.

Look back at all the stories we've heard over the years on this forum about people being refused licenses because of a made up "law". Being refused scopes on a rifle, told to hand up one gun to get another, told they cannot have gun Y until they use gun X for a while, etc, etc.

I've said it before that if you repeat a falsehood long enough it becomes the norm, and eventually treated as though it's law. Look at the competency courses (i know, i know, again). They are treated as the only way to get a license for a beginner. It's not, but so ingrained is this belief that not only do we (the shooters) think it is but An Gardaí will point blank refuse to accept anything other than the cert even though there are at least three other ways to prove competence.