Excellent title for the thread ;-)

The guy deserves to do serious jail time imho. No "poor little Johnny" stories should be tolerated.

I'm also a bit disappointed in the guys who were with him, having seen the state that he seems to have been in, you'd think they might have done more to keep him under control.

As an aside, the article is badly written... but paper rarely refuses ink, I suppose.

You must be taking the piss. Going on the session is enjoying yourself. Grabbing a rifle because you can’t get served is beyond ridiculous.

This is definitely not a witch-hunt. He clearly did it.

The scope is high powered

I was taking the piss👍

Mock serious answer: A rifle that fires a cartridge with a muzzle energy over 4,500 joules and has a collapsing telescopic stock.

Actual answer: There are two types of rifles according to journalists, airsoft and high powered. Airsoft sometimes drift into the high powered category.

Needs serious Jail time

His luck it was the AGS he was dealing with.

Any other police force would have neutralised the threat in a more direct manner by a swift lead injection, or parking the squad car on him and justifiably so,as he had opened fire in their direction and was possibly carrying an IED[silencer as it later turned out to be] taped to his stomach.

Given he has been arrested and charged, let's see what the judicial system does... its in the hands of our judges now, so let's just hope they manage to get this decision right!

Continue as you were, nothing to see here 😁



I'd agree that journalists don't typically get this details right. But I wouldn't complain too much in the context of Irish Rifles.

I'd mentally divide rifles into; air rifles, rimfires, varmint centrefires, and deer centrefires, and then the rest. Deer calibres are pretty high powered compared to what else is licensed. Although not compared to the super long range range rifle obviously.

I was more impressed he said moderator and not silencer. 😂

Just to provide a little balance, the dude has done some good in his life. He risked his own neck here and saved the life of a child.

I'm not excusing him from his actions in Donegal, just posting this for a little balance.

Wow fair play to him, suppose I've to do a bit of backpedaling!

I'd like to think I would but going toe toe with a pit bull is no small thing. "If I was there", if has a great habit of not being there. At the end of the day he stepped up to the plate. It'd be a wet day I'd give him a catapult but it does paint the man in a different light.

Dogs have attack many kids in front of adults who were unable to stop it.

Im sure here would want to do the same thing. But doesn’t mean it’s happen.

I think it stands to him and glad Battlecorp posted it.

And that's the problem when anything bad happens with people who are licensed for firearms.When a drunk driver kills people we never hear people saying let's ban cars because we all know that's a stupid reaction to a **** individual.

When someone does a **** thing with a firearm we get people saying stupid things like ban all guns as if everyone with a gun is the same.

End of day most of us make a few mistakes along the way, lord knows I have make a few, its human nature and par for the course, most of our infractions are minor and irreverent in the greater schemes of things and most do not harm or have a potential to cause harm to people.

However, in this case, this chap made a major ****-up (apologies for my French & Spelling) and needs to be dealt with accordingly.

A fraction of an inch either way and someone could have been seriously injured or killed, it could have been my family or it could have been one of yours, your Wife, Husband, Child, Mother, Father, Brother, Sister etc,…………. pause and think of that for a moment.

And before anyone asks or implies that I’m on a high and mighty stool, I’ll say NO, I’m not. I and colleagues been shot at on numerous occasions in the past (sa, gpmg, rpg, arty/mor/tank/Ied’s, etc….), and I've see the danage firearms can do, TBTG I survived and came home, some serving colleagues have not. RIP for them.

I will not be his judge or jury as I am totally biased and believe he should do time and be barred from ever again holding a firearm.

Lads, this is not something to be trivialised, some idiot(s) having a few too many beers is fine for the most part, but if you can’t hold your beer, can’t hold your temper, or your drug of choice (illegal anyway) then you should not hold or never be granted access to firearms. Shite like this will do untold damage to our pastime/sport and it gives more credence to all the antis out there.

Regardless of one’s past or past heroics, we are all judged by our last mistake, end of.

Just my tuppence worth.

Same. I intervened to a row years ago in Dublin, where a 30+ and his scallywags was threatening a 13/14 yo.

I swung for his jaw but slipped, catching him full on his throat. Everyone scarpered. That was when I could run. Couldn't do it now though.

Fair enough. He could count himself very lucky he didn’t shoot anyone, or indeed end up shot himself.

Also, keeping a deer hunting rifle in a parked car overnight was not a wise, safe practice.

According to the Irish Times report, it was a Tikka T3X.

That range of models is available in all the usual deer-legal calibres, and as he was after (as reported) red deer, it's most likely at the upper end of such things: something in the .30" family or 6-7mm I'd suspect.

"Powerful" by any reasonable definition.

And obviously WAY more so than the usual "high-powered" beloved of the mass meejia: an EBR in .223Rem/5.56x45.

Every thing about what he did or nearly did was wrong. Jail time, obviously, but I can't help feeling that a person know to the gardai, in possession of a 9mm Glock and a 1kg of cocaine would have got a much lower sentence? How long is needed as punishment?

Cocaine ruins so many lives in this country, and we still report shipments in terms of millions of euros, and not number of fatal doses.

Thankfully if I was heading to Donegal for a stalk, Id spend my spare 100e on new trousers. I wish he had.

Madatory min of 10 years for unlawful possession of a firearm?

I've heard through a friend that the ARU got lost on the way to responding to the shout, and that if he'd had any more ammo on him they would have shot him. He's a very lucky boy indeed.