New crime figures have shown that gun crime in Ireland is on the increase. The results for the second quarter of this year have revealed that the number of raids on security vans has almost doubled. This has prompted the introduction of new state-of-the-art vehicles by security firms. The figures also revealed the number of rape cases are up but figures for drug crime are... (GunPolicy.org)

A landmark High Court judgement in favour of a County Wexford man who successfully challenged a garda superintendent's refusal to grant him a firearms certificate for a target pistol will not lead to a situation where Irish gun ownership is as liberal as that in the United States. Both the gardaí and Curracloe-based marksman dismissed suggestions that gun laws could become significantly liberalised as a result of the rulings. Gardaí said this week they were still... (GunPolicy.org)

Fresh garda powers proposed in the new Criminal Justice Bill must be balanced with additional safeguards, it was claimed today. The newly-published Bill gives officers increased powers in relation to the issuing of search warrants, the detention of suspects, and the taking of saliva samples. It also introduces fixed penalties for public order offences and new restrictions on firearms licences, while allowing retracted witness statements to be used in criminal... (GunPolicy.org)

The Irish government is to introduce tough new laws to combat spiralling gun violence in the country's cities and towns. It follows a near 10-fold increase in the number of people murdered through violent crime in the Republic in the past 10 years. One of the latest victims was a 65-year-old grandmother who died instantly after being shot in the head in her Dublin house last weekend, apparently the victim of a family feud. Three days later, an English woman on a... (GunPolicy.org)

DUBLIN — Weapons confiscated from the Irish Republican Army guerrilla group in recent decades and destroyed by Irish police Friday are to be melted down and shipped to the United States to help build a "peace fountain." The firearms, which included heavy sub-machine guns, Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles and rocket launchers, were seized during investigations into paramilitary and criminal activities mostly between the 1980s and mid-1990s, police said. "The bulk... (GunPolicy.org)

New figures show a stark rise in the number of gun-related murders. They have more than doubled since last year, but only a third have so far been detected. Figures obtained by the Labour party in response to a Dáil question this week on gun-related murders show a shocking rise this year compared to 2002. There have been 21 murders involving firearms, compared to ten for the whole of last year. That is virtually half of the 44 murders committed as of November... (GunPolicy.org)

A major review of gun ownership is planned before the end of the year as the Abbeylara Tribunal begins probing the shooting dead of John Carthy by garda marksmen. Among the issues to be decided by the tribunal, and consequently the Dáil, will be whether the recipients of the 209,000 firearms licences issued each year should have to be certified mentally fit to hold a weapon every time they apply for a new licence or renewal. Doctors, psychiatrists and solicitors... (GunPolicy.org)

The show of strength by 500 Aer Lingus pilots marching in uniform through Dublin airport campus yesterday set the tone for the mass meeting which followed. Pilots, who crammed into a room in the Great Southern Hotel, were resolute in their determination to reject the new rosters at the centre of the dispute "because of the safety implications". The meeting assumed an international dimension as colleagues from the United States and Europe addressed the gathering urging... (GunPolicy.org)

Gardaí have warned it is an offence to possess air pistols, following a schoolyard incident in Tralee in which a boy was slightly injured. The incident, at lunchtime on Tuesday, occurred when a 16-year old boy entered the school grounds of the all-Irish primary school, Scoil Mhic Easmainn, in Tralee, and fired a pellet which hit a fifth class student. The 12-year-old boy was hit above the ear and suffered minor injuries. He did not need to be hospitalised, but... (GunPolicy.org)

The use of imitation firearms by a troupe of line dancers practising their steps in a Co Down hall has brought them into conflict with the local borough council. The council, which owns the hall, accused the line dancers of breaching fire regulations and banned them from firing their imitation Colt 45s. The move caused several people to leave the Missouri Country Music and Line Dancing Club. But some club members decided to give up their cowboy antics and continue... (GunPolicy.org)

Eight years ago, the Downing Street declaration said there was a place in politics for all parties, including the loyalist parties and Sinn Féin who, in the context of a "permanent end to use and support for paramilitary violence", established a commitment to exclusively peaceful means in advancing its cause. Eight years later the continued political support of Sinn Féin for the Provisional IRA has to be examined in that context. The end to Provisional violence that... (GunPolicy.org)

The murder of a Cork drug dealer on Thursday is a reminder that organised crime is now well established in provincial centres, writes Jim Cusack, Security Editor Gardaí in Limerick have seized 15 guns, mostly sawn-off shotguns, and some 1,500 rounds of ammunition since the re-emergence of an inter-drug gang feud in the city last year. Gardaí sources say the two gangs involved have access to sophisticated weapons, including sub-machine guns, as some of the ammunition... (GunPolicy.org)

A Garda directive on gun licensing and the storage of legally-held weapons is to be challenged in the High Court. Mr Justice Kearns heard yesterday that many of the State's 200,000 legally-held guns were stored in wardrobes, car boots, outhouses and even under beds. He was told some had ended up in the hands of criminals and had been used in armed robberies. Chief Supt Dermot Jennings told the court that 247 legally held firearms had been reported stolen last year and... (GunPolicy.org)

Three Irishmen, including two Sinn Fein members, were convicted in a Florida court yesterday of illegally shipping at least 122 handguns to the Provisional IRA last year as Tony Blair was attempting to persuade Gerry Adams to agree to the decommissioning of terrorist weapons. Conor Claxton, 27, Anthony Smyth, 43, both from Belfast, and Martin Mullan, 30, from Dunloy, Co Antrim, face up to 10 years in jail. They were all aquitted of the more serious charge of conspiring... (GunPolicy.org)

Three Irish natives were arrested Monday and charged with attempting to mail dozens of high-powered, concealable weapons from South Florida to their war-torn homeland. Belfast native Anthony Smyth, 42, was arrested about 6 a.m. at his apartment at 16240 Laurel Dr., Weston, along with his live-in girlfriend, Cork native Siobhan Browne, 34, formerly of Boca Raton. Agents with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force simultaneously stormed the $725-a-month, furnished... (GunPolicy.org)

In the early 1980s, after 18 paratroopers were killed in an IRA landmine attack at Warrenpoint, the British army and RUC withdrew ground transport from south Armagh and began building a line of observation posts from Newry to the Monaghan salient. All troops and police transport was by air, and the new posts were massively fortified against car-bomb and mortar attack. This effectively removed all military and police targets from one of the strongest areas of IRA... (GunPolicy.org)