I wonder how many on the FEC have ever shot a firearm. If they haven't, what expert knowledge do they have in relation to what a "silencer" actually does on a centerfire. I mean for all we know they have a preconceived idea on what they do. What is the issue with a moderator while hunting, vermin control or target shooting?

How many of the FEC have shot at night time? If not, what expertise can they actually use to understand how nightvision is more or is less safe.. Because if they ever used a lamp and then used NV, they would know why NV is more safe.

Browne has already said, forget about questioning the selection process of the FEC as will not be revisited, but you'd have question the credibility of an expert committee who have never held, shot or participated in any of the activities they are making recommendations on. Wonder if Brownie would ask them to diagnose a noise in his engine?

And yet it is in the report..saying exactly that.. and thats why a safe shot cant be made and so they are dangerous, oh and just to close the loop they state any of the high end thermal is too good and could fall into the wrong hands !! so its both not good enough and at the same time too good.

lets call a spade a spade, NPWS dont want lads after deer with it so they want it gone and guards dont have it so they want it gone, and it has revived the popularity of fox hunting at night so anything that revives hunting must be banned, all an agenda

Another thing,I'm sure the firearms legislation is way,way down the list of things local and community gardai are thinking about day in day out as they look at the local thieves who they arrested and got convicted given community sentence for their 50th conviction.Also does anyone know if there has ever been a gangland murder with a stolen bolt action or semi auto rifle taken from a licence holder.

Yet again, we find ourselves waiting for some sort of re-action from our representative groups 🙄😒

This all makes for very depressing reading 😔

Call me naïve, but I think there are some positives as well as negatives to be taken out of the FEC recommendations?

Negatives first;

Okay, the lack of consensus on SACF rifles and CF pistols probably doesn't bode well, I imagine the dept. will press on with the legislation to stop new licenses for these being issued. But there might be a chance of an evidence based review of the suitability of these in which case AGS won't have a leg to stand on (I know I'm probably being way overly optimistic here)?

The thermal vision ban is a disaster, NPWS really threw us under the bus here. The night vision restrictions sound like a racket.

I agree that all the training stuff is a load of waffle, we already have to do a competency course to get a license in the first place. I don't understand why all this "Novice shooter" supervision stuff is being pushed when AGS have been satisfied with competency up until now.

Minimum range time is annoying too. Once you have your range membership and licenses you should be allowed go as frequently or as infrequently as you like I think. Does this also include hunters?

Positives;

The fact that the majority support a rimfire pistol mag increase I think is great news. The thought of having to butcher a pistol or revolver to get into the sport has put me off trying target shooting for years but this might finally convince me, and others, to get into the sport?

I think that all of the licensing recommendations are great, and the ability to do like for like swaps of guns at an RFD is very welcome. The fact that there were no objections to the home reloading recommendation from the other FEC members is another reason for cautious optimism.

I think the compulsory hunting organization membership is a good thing. It guarantees that shooters have insurance, and the more people are in these orgs, the more clout they should have at a political level, and more funds will be available to do conservation work.

Grey areas;

The written permissions thing seems really arduous at first and most of my permissions are verbal too, but a simple text message from the landowner is written permission and it might actually be able to help with poaching prosecutions.

The different RFD and gunsmiths licensing I think is good? It should save a lot of people from cowboy RFDs making hatchet mods to firearms. On the other hand, if this becomes law how many gunsmiths will actually be able to work if actual qualifications are required?

RFD levels of security would be very annoying indeed, but AGS have been citing the possibility stolen guns as the reason for targeting SACFs and CF pistols. Maybe some middle ground could be found here? For example, allowing SACF rifles and CF pistols but requiring two safes in different rooms with components stored in the different safes (again, probably being overly optimistic here) along with CCTV and monitored alarms?

I agree, his arguments and phrasing were meticulous. Hopefully the dept. and ministers agree!

Reading through some of the comments here, there is a lot of shouting of NO NO NO going on. If we continue on like this, we will end up like the unionists up North - Fading into obscurity, being left behind, and getting no say because of an unwillingness to compromise.

I think the shooting orgs need to engage with the department in a positive note, because there are some good recommendations in the report that will benefit the shooting community. For the not-so-good recommendations, we as a shooting community need to approach the ministers with a spirit of goodwill and willingness to compromise.

Ban on thermal vision? Okay, how about instead we put it with night vision and require some accredited training on its use rather than a full ban?

How about we allow CF pistols and SACF rifles to be licensed for new entrants to the sport, but lets work together with the Garda crime prevention guys for proper security to ensure that its impossible for them to be stolen? To be fair to the Gardai and the courts here, they do a great job of preventing licensed firearms from falling into the wrong hands!

If we could get these two concessions from the dept. along with the rest of the recommendations from the FEC, we could actually see a golden age for Irish shooting sports.

It might be time to split up the report and have a thread on every recommendation... That would help everyone get a clear understating on the entire report, keep the discussion from getting confusing etc. Could a sub-forum set up, @Cass ?

The suggestion of compulsory hunting organization membership descriminates against people living in the cities, who don't have a local club and aren't allowed join rural clubs because they don't live in the parish :(