Irish Independent - 21/06/05

Terrier

Top garda urges gun owners to secure weapons

A SENIOR garda has urged the owners of legally-held weapons to improve security on them to help prevent gun attacks.

Reacting to the latest in a series of tit-for-tat shootings in Limerick, Chief Supt Willie Keane said that shotguns stolen in house burglaries and from cars are often used in these incidents.

"Time and time again guns are being stolen all too easily from homes when the owners could have prevented it and the weapons are then ending up in the hands of criminals here and elsewhere," he said.

The latest shooting incident saw a man in his 30s suffer pellet wounds to the face and upper body after being shot at around 2.30am yesterday in the Ballinacurra-Weston area of Limerick.

He was still being treated for his injuries in the Mid-West Regional Hospital, Dooradoyle, yesterday.

Sparks

Yeesh. And yet, from January...

181. Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of serious crimes (details supplied) using firearms which took place during 2003 or during the latest year for which figures are available; the number of these which were carried out with legally held firearms; the number with previously legally held firearms which had been stolen from their owners; and the number carried out with firearms which were not legally held at any time here. [2322/05]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. McDowell): I wish to
inform the Deputy that the number of offences recorded in 2003 in which a
firearm was used are outlined in the following table:

2003:

Murders: 20
Manslaughter: 0
Robberies: 251
Aggravated burglaries: 62
Possession of a firearm: 374
Discharge of a firearm: 210



A breakdown of the offences by reference to whether or not the weapon used was legally held is not readily available and could only be obtained by a disproportionate expenditure of Garda time and resources.

So they don't have the statistics to back up what they're claiming

Chalk

Provisional Figures show 11% decrease in serious crime for the first quarter of 2005

FIREARMS

In the first quarter, the numbers of cases of possession of firearms and discharging a firearm decreased by 30% and 24% respectively.

Gardaí target gangs in firearm crackdown


Sean O’Riordan
GARDAÍ have set up additional patrols in north Cork and south Limerick in an attempt to crack down on criminals who have been stealing firearms.Six garda districts are co-operating in the move which is also aimed at curbing a recent spate of robberies at homes, businesses and post offices in the region.

Codenamed Operation Deel, after the river which runs through west Limerick, the crackdown is being coordinated from Mallow.

Other gardaí involved in the operation are from Fermoy, Kanturk, Bruff, Askeaton and Newcastlewest.

Mallow-based Superintendent Barry McPolin said the patrols had been significantly stepped up during the day and at night for the gangs who mainly travel secondary roads.

It is understood that most of them are from the Limerick area, but some are also from Cork. The worry for gardaí is that these stolen firearms could end up being used in a serious crime, including fatal shootings.

“This operation will run for a number of weeks and will be constantly monitored and evaluated,” Supt McPolin said.

He said the move was a “pro-active response to crime prevention” but was quick to stress that gardaí would need maximum cooperation from the public if the operation was to be a success.

“We can’t stress how important it is that people make sure their firearms are secured properly. We are concerned that stolen weapons will ultimately make their way into the criminal underworld,” Supt McPolin said.

He would not reveal how many firearms had been stolen in recent weeks in north Cork, and south and west Limerick but confirmed there were “a number”.

He said co-operation was being sought not only from firearms owners but from all those living in the rural region.

“People have to be vigilant. Anyone who sees any suspicious activity should immediately contact their local garda station. But they should also, if possible, get a good description of the people and take the registration number of the vehicle they are driving,” Supt McPolin said.

Gardaí will also use Operation Deel as an intelligence-gathering tool on the criminals. They believe that there is a certain amount of co-operation, or “interlinkage” as they called it, between both Limerick and Cork gangs.

Anybody with information can contact Mallow Garda Station at (022) 21105 or their local station.

seems more like a case of a crap newspaper twisting various reports, garda initiatives and requests to the firearm holders to be vigilant to create a sensational story.

Scruff

whats all the fuss about? do you mean your leagally held firearms arent stored in a secure manner? highly unresponsible of you if they arent.

jaycee

whats all the fuss about? do you mean your leagally held firearms arent stored in a secure manner? highly unresponsible of you if they arent.

I think you would be hard set to find a serious shooter on here who hasn't
more than enough secure storage for their firearms ..
This is done for 3 reasons ..

1: Safety
2: Protection from damage
3: Protection from theft.. firearms are expensive items.

In my case I have 2 safes in the house ... one holds the ammunition and the
bolts (An essential worrking part of a rifle ..without which it cannot fire.)
the second holds the firearms themselves.

Both Safes are securely bolted to concrete walls in a concealed location.

You will find serious shooters very annoyed at reports like this..

A breakdown of the offences by reference to whether or not the weapon used was legally held is not readily available

Chalk

just re-reading the report in the indo - comes free in work,

the gard says stolen guns end up in the hands of criminals.
to me that kind of goes without saying tbh.

no mention of gangs or violent criminals.
alo no mention of whether the gun involved in that shooting was stolen/legally held/imported.

Chalk

Scruff wrote:

whats all the fuss about? do you mean your leagally held firearms arent stored in a secure manner? highly unresponsible of you if they arent.

what a strange comment scruff.

if you read about you will find that everyone who posts here and is in possession of a firearm will keep it more than the legal requirement for secure.

the anger comes from a gard suggesting that people who hold legal firearms in general dont keep them secure, ala, america, where people keep guns in boxes under the bed and so on.

Flattop 15

seeing that this is down my way.
Some info on Supt Keanes comments might put this in a different light

1] He is anti gun,and is making life difficult for any new applications on any firearms in his district.
2]There is an illegal pool of guns in Limerick,that is passed around,rented or hired or sold for various crimes,which has been supplemented by the fueding fammilies in Limerick from the UK which has gone to full auto equipment and rumour on the street is it is up to an RPG7.This is owned by people who are impossible to infiltrate,so the police are relying on tippoffs or some informants in the fammlies.Long,and tedious and difficult to show as a quick fix to "gun crime"
So as per usual it is more easier to blame the person who has his property stolen than actually going about apprehending the criminal.

3] To be fair to the man,he does have a point about security storage,as there are enough shoddily stored firearms around.But it isnt the total preventative.Who isnt going to hand over their gun cabinet keys if your family is held hostage?This has been a standard tactic down here to get guns.

Scruff

Chalk wrote:

what a strange comment scruff.

if you read about you will find that everyone who posts here and is in possession of a firearm will keep it more than the legal requirement for secure.

the anger comes from a gard suggesting that people who hold legal firearms in general dont keep them secure, ala, america, where people keep guns in boxes under the bed and so on.

I wasnt implying that people here were negligent in their responsibilities in gun storage, I was just wondering why gun owners would have such a negative reaction to the garda publicly highlighting the ownus on owners to secure their guns. I'm speaking from experience with a person i know who was a casual hunter and had his shotgun sitting in his press behind his clothes. It wasnt stolen but the fact of the matter is that while i dont doubt that the vast majority, if not all, the gun owners who post here have gone beyond the call of duty in securing their guns, there will still be a sizable number of gun owners who dont have their guns secured sufficiently.

I can understand the legal gun owner community feeling a bit victimised when the Garda come out with such remarks but from a garda poin of view, the less guns in the community, legally or otherwise, the less gun crime and therefore the happier the gardai will be.

Sparks

I was just wondering why gun owners would have such a negative reaction to the garda publicly highlighting the ownus on owners to secure their guns.

Fair comment, that. But it's not why there's a negative reaction - it's because we don't have legally licenced and held assault rifles and RPG-7s. And because we do take security precautions at non-trivial expense, and because the gardai have no figures to show that this is even a problem to begin with, yet are still throwing mud towards our names.

Flattop 15

It wasnt stolen but the fact of the matter is that while i dont doubt that the vast majority, if not all, the gun owners who post here have gone beyond the call of duty in securing their guns, there will still be a sizable number of gun owners who dont have their guns secured sufficiently.

Thats because at present there is No law regarding compulsory secure storage.It is on a voulantaty basis,if you have a gumption of sense you will have one if yuor collection is valuable to you.Again it isnt a magic cure all for firearms theft.

I can understand the legal gun owner community feeling a bit victimised when the Garda come out with such remarks but from a garda poin of view, the less guns in the community, legally or otherwise, the less gun crime and therefore the happier the gardai will be.

[/QUOTE]

A "bit" victimised???? :mad:
Like being Gay and being told that AIDS is Gods punishment for being Gay
!!!! Any other minority group would be kicking up blue murder screaming discrimination and oppression.But because it involves nasty guns and racist PC sterotypes of gun owners.We are in a different leauge.
Then they really must have a very simplistic tunnel vision view of law enforcement and crime.We have had the most stringent gun laws in Europe since the 70s and paradoxially our crime involving the use of firearms has risen over 100% in that time[this is excluding the whole NI IRA statistics as well].Maybe they dont consider our UK neighbours have gotten so restrictive on gun ownership,yet their gun crime has risen as well. Less legally owned guns does not corrospond to less crime.