I'll bet they were glad to have a firearm at home to defend themselves

[AtW]

OK, I think you can buy without first being registered but all guns need to be registered, handguns and semi-automatics are banned and you even need to get a certificate for an airgun.

Look at years of the stats (firearms homicide): 0.03 in Ireland in 1991. Note the date - 1991, UK had 0.15 in 2002 (well after ban).

The question is therefore whether gun ownership in Ireland in 1991 was more liberal than that in UK in 2002.

It's hard to actually find good Irish gun control reference link (Google is a bit tulip, but since SKA isn't better just yet I won't whine too much about it).

Here is what I found however: Ahern signs new gun control act into law - dated 24 Jul 2009 (not 1991 the stats refer to).

"The act bans handguns in Ireland and also introduces a requirement for referees, background medical checks and standards for the safe keeping of guns in the home for all firearms licence applicants"

I infer from this that handguns were not banned before that time in Ireland, so in 1991 that the stats refer to handguns were legal, yet they had 5 times lower firearms homicide rate there than in the UK after guns were banned.

Maybe they are trying to get firearms homicite rate to zero, who knows - but it appears that a country that is fairly close to UK geographically and perhaps culturally had 5 times lower firearms homicide rate than UK after the ban.

It is true that they had higher suicide rate with firearms - that's the choice of a firearms owner.

------------

But that's NOT important.

Let's say risk of being shot with a firearm would double or triple in UK if they were made legal again. I'd take it because I'd feel that overall it is a very low risk anyway and I'd have a chance to resist very unlikely attack - worst case for me would be to die fighting with my firearm, even if it was used against me - I'd accept that risk easily alongside with hefty 3rd party insurance that should come with any firearms ownership.

The matter of fact is that every day 8-10 people die from car accidents, yet people accept it as price for being mobile - this is the same as being FREE to go from one place to another, heavy price, yet one worth paying. Proper fierarms ownership will have much lower price, yet much higher importance on one's freedom.

[AtW]

Firearms are not for everyone - there should be very strict requirements that include training, 3rd party insurance etc for those who qualify.

Many people are just not ready for it - they can't handle it and should not get firearms. But on the other hand their fears should not limit those who can handle firearms from owning them.

I'm actually not suprised at firearms resistance displayed on this board - I've spoken to people in real life and find that probability of having anywhere near US style firearms ownership in this country is below absolute zero.

It's probably something to be expected - it's not suprising though that it is the US of A that have the will to have influence that is only comparable to those of previous Empires - they have the will to confront risks associated with many things, one of which is ownership of deadly weapons.

A coward dies a thousand deaths... a soldier dies but once.

HTH

[AtW]

I saw your post Gonzo and then you deleted it. That's very low - very very low, I think the only option for you now is to bow down to my superior discussion skillz

[Troll]

Go to sleep ATW

[Gonzo]

I saw your post Gonzo and then you deleted it. That's very low - very very low, I think the only option for you now is to bow down to my superior discussion skillz

After I posted it I read the post that you made while I was typing it, it read to me as though you did not want to debate any more, so deleted it.

But if you want to carry on .......

Nah, I can't be arsed.

[AtW]

Go to sleep ATW

I am going to - put up a movie to watch first: unarmed mortal kombat

[AtW]

After I posted it I read the post that you made while I was typing it, it read to me as though you did not want to debate any more, so deleted it.

But if you want to carry on .......

Nah, I can't be arsed.

You liar - you posted that you fully agreed with my superior arguements and will be queuing up tomorrow at the nearest Isher weaponmasters store

[Gonzo]

You liar - you posted that you fully agreed with my superior arguements and will be queuing up tomorrow at the nearest Isher weaponmasters store

arguments

hth

[AtW]

arguments

hth

[Gonzo]

The point that I was making in the deleted post was that although handguns were only recently banned in Ireland (seemingly) I don't accept that the availability of different types of guns has any great effect on anyone's safety.

I would be as concerned about someone with a sawn-off shotgun as I would be about someone with a revolver.

For some inexplicable reason, people fancy their chances more if the shooter has to reload more frequently even though they might still be killed by the first shot.

So I don't think that particular change to gun laws in Eire has had a huge impact on the likelyhood of being shot. Especially given the volume of illegal weapons in that part of the world.