Garda Commissioner Drew Harris – A New Brush?

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris 
– A New Brush?

So the guards are getting a new Commissioner; a new brush for an old housecleaning problem.  A northern Protestant; a PSNI officer with 35 years' experience whose father was killed by the IRA.  We wish him well; sincerely, because he is surely facing a difficult time of it as head of one of the most corrupt and inept police forces in Europe whose reputation among ordinary people has plummeted in a few years from trust to amused bewilderment to angry mistrust.   The 2017 survey (taken before revelations of false breath tests, wrongful convictions and the departure of the then commissioner) found that less than half of respondents believed that the Gardaí was a well managed or world-class police service.  No offence to Drew Harris – he isn’t what we wanted.  We wanted and probably won't get a Chris Patton figure with sweeping powers to reform, fire and recruit a new police force from the ground up but that’s not the Irish way which is the coverup followed by a few spin doctors’ lies and a half-assed fix which sees the worst offenders promoted out of the public gaze.  Something had to be done and Justice Minister Charles Flanagan knew his reputation as the minister who failed to sort out the guards would continue to dog him unto the end of his days unless he did something quickly before he retired and/or his government fell and the Soldiers of Destiny took over for another bout of the kleptocratic government they excel at.   His previous appointee had been a disaster; a sop to the feminists who turned out to be one of the boys; steeped in the garda tradition that sees themselves as a fine body of men above reproach and above the law to whom the security of the state and the rule of law might be entrusted without question because they know what is best for the country.  They might have known what was best for the guards and how to stifle whistleblowers and critics but the interests of the country have somehow eluded them.  Scandal followed scandal for the last twenty years; each more bizarre and bewildering than its predecessor until even Charles Flanagan who is not by nature a reforming minister realised the political system had run out of excuses for its embarrassing police force and somehow found the courage to act.  He was told by journalists, constituents and commentators to go and find a Chris Patton; give him the necessary powers and sort out the problem for all time.  He didn’t.  Now he has hired Drew Harris instead.  On the face of it the man is highly qualified with a solid record and may even be the right man for the job but he has not been given the kind of powers that were given to Chris Patten to take on a problem that has been a hundred years in the making.  He is a commissioner heading up a 14,000 strong force, many of whom will see him as a threat and a humiliation.  He is a threat because he will surely try to change old ways of policing that have manifestly failed – he has the power to propose reforms and one hopes politicians will have the wit to support him.  He is a humiliation because the Minister had to look outside the state to find someone with the ability and integrity the job requires.

So Drew Harris it is to be and he has been endorsed by the Unionist establishment.  Gerry Adams is less enthusiastic since it was Harris who had him arrested and held for several days in the middle of an election campaign over the murder of Jean McConville - a decision many regard as bizarre and ill-advised and which rebounded in Adam's favour and who emerged from detention with the air of a man who has just been handed an election trump card. (He was later gifted a second in the form of Arlene Foster's now-famous "alligator" remark in an election that was surely the high point of his political career).  Least enthusiastic of all are the families of the victims of the UVF Glenanne Gang.  In 2010, then Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris wrote a letter to the legal representatives of UVF victims telling them that they would not get an investigation into the wider questions raised by the activities of the Glenanne gang. The most significant wider question was the extent of state and police collusion in the gang and its murderous activities, including the deaths of at least 89 people.  Concerns have been raised about his previous close association with MI5 and the possibility of divided loyalties and his appointment during a highly sensitive time when relations between the UK and the Republic are on edge because of Brexit.  His first loyalty will probably not lie with "the force"; that has previously been shown to be part of the problem.

Garda HQ, Phoenix Park, Dublin. Not an organisation amenable to reform

His appointment makes several significant statements.  Even in the absence of a Patton-style reform his appointment shows some level of intent to tackle the garda problem.  Somewhere in the back of the public mind will be the worry that this is yet another politically correct appointment intended to delude and mollify angry and cynical voters.  Time will tell and one can only hope Minister Flanagan has the courage and the wit to support his appointee.  His appointment reassures Unionists because it shows the southern political system trusts someone from a northern background to carry out one of the most important functions in the state.  Harris is surely aware of the treatment John Stalker received at the hands of the RUC when he investigated the RUC shoot to kill policy.  (Stalker was removed from his position in charge of the inquiry, was suspended from duty over allegations of association with criminals, was cleared and returned to duty but was not reinstated as head of the inquiry which was taken over by Colin Sampson of the West Yorkshire Police. Its findings were never made public.  Stalker's legal bill was not paid by his employers and was eventually covered by public subscription.)   Apparently hell hath no fury like a police force whose traditional prerogatives are threatened.  Then there is the problem of the Irish Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform which has for generations ignored Justice, Equality and Law reform and has done more or less as it pleased.  It has made policing an extension of party politics resulting in calls that policing and politics be permanently separated.  Finally there are the ordinary, decent, rank-and-file Gardaí who want to do their jobs, draw their pay, rear families and regain the trust of the community.  One likes to think Commissioner Harris will enjoy their support. They are the people who deliver policing and not the politicians or the department of Justice mandarins and they deserve fair play and good leadership.  A very few are not decent and deserve sacking because they have brought justice and policing into disrepute.  Rotten cops have been compared to bad apples which contaminate the whole barrel.

In Ireland, Chris Patten is best known and most admired for his role in 1999 as chairman of the commission which transformed the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) into the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). The commission made 175 recommendations, including a new oath for officers, removing the British flag from police buildings and recruiting equal numbers from both communities.  Many in the Republic hoped his example would be followed in Dublin but were disappointed

Drew Harris is a product of the Patten reforms.  Tommie Gorman wrote on the RTE news website on June 26^th:

“The PSNI I’ve dealt with during almost two decades has consistently been more impressive than the gardaí. Part of that was due to the lesson emphasised time and time during The Troubles - to achieve cross-community it had no choice but to radically change. There was the very practical consideration that if officers were not professional in their day-to-day work, they faced a real threat of injury or death. Another key reason for the process of inbuilt, ongoing reform within the PSNI is the level of structured scrutiny and oversight it faces - from the Policing Board, to the Policing Ombudsman to political and societal monitoring.  Drew Harris is a product of such ongoing scrutiny.”

This is significant as it gives reason for hope he will be less fearful of reform than a home-grown commissioner from the “We’re a fine body of men and we know best” tradition.

PSNI online FAC application

We don’t know where Drew Harris stands on Gun Bans.  Is he comfortable with Northern Ireland’s strict but infinitely fairer gun laws?  Or would he favour the traditional garda objection to private gun ownership?  Or perhaps he would like to see an English – style handgun ban?  The shooting community will wisely withhold approval until they have seen how he handles firearms licensing.  One would like to think we have seen the last of the cute hoor propaganda campaign against gun ownership and shooting sports that has emanated from the gardaí and the DOJ for the last ten years.  We would certainly like to trust Drew Harris.  Does he value trust? We don’t know. There are a few things we DO know.  Charles Flanagan will want some kind of garda reform and the disarming of criminal gangs.  Previously the guards’ and the DOJ’s cherished belief was that the disarming of criminals began with the banning of legally held firearms.  There is absolutely nothing to give us to believe that their mindset has changed.  The question now is whether Drew Harris will have the courage and integrity to challenge that myth. In fairness, he comes from a system that does not usually see sportsmen as a threat to  national security or the safety of the population.  If we are lucky and I stress the IF; we may cautiously hope for some fair play in this area.  Northern Ireland has an online firearm licensing system that works very well apart from delays caused by staffing problems.  If Drew Harris were to introduce a similar system in the Republic and centralise firearms licensing so that at least there was respite from the prejudices of local superintendents and some kind of consistency and standardisation in the processing of applications he would certainly win the support of the shooting community.  That is hoping for a lot in a state that regards a gunowner as an unconvicted criminal so we should not get carried away by optimism. On the other hand it behoves us to give this newcomer some time in which to demonstrate his goodwill before we withdraw ours.  My personal view is that while the appointment may carry certain risks it cannot be worse than what we have previously endured.

 

Sport Shooting in Northern Ireland is considerably less fraught with legal difficulties than in the south. Is it perhaps too optimistic to hope that the new Commissioner would reform licensing? Probably.

I have lived in Northern Ireland for fourteen years.  I have had contact with the PSNI in firearms licensing and very little else apart from a run in with a traffic cop.  I have nothing but respect for the people in firearms licensing and have been allowed to pursue my sport without undue interference.  The traffic cop was a bigot in my opinion – you can’t win ‘em all. I have received none of the outrageous and criminally hostile treatment I endured from the gardaí in the south. I’m not saying they’re all bad – they are not – but I encountered a lot of bad ones.  Many of my friends including my wife are Protestant so I have an insight into northern society few southerners are privileged to have.  My friends have asked me from time to time how I feel about a united Ireland.  I tell them bluntly I am mildly unionist and was happy to escape the shambolic mess that is firearms licensing in the south and don’t want to go back but that if a united Ireland has to be, then the northern Protestant may well find he has an important role to play because as far as I am concerned there is a tradition of integrity and religious observance in Northern Ireland that can only benefit the south.  A body of Presbyterian and Church of Ireland representatives in Dáil Éireann might just shake up that assembly in a positive way.  My darkest and most irrational fear is a united Ireland governed by a joined-up SDLP-FF-SF and a return to the kleptocracy of pre-2011 and the guards running firearms licensing for the whole island and myself too old to emigrate for a fourth time.

Casting and loading your own ammunition, regarded as a harmless hobby in most countries is banned in the republic of Ireland.  Dare we hope for reform?  Probably not.

So, Commissioner Drew Harris;  welcome to the Republic of Ireland where our hundred year old experiment with democracy has foundered and our preferred government is a corrupt kleptocracy and policing is feudal and religion has been replaced by political correctness and the environment is a disaster and the Germans make all the important decisions and the banks are operated by highway robbers in pinstripes and politics is "pork barrel" and shooters are a discriminated against minority and we really need someone to redeem us from our corrosive cynicism and save our Justice Minister from further embarrassment.  Good luck!

Addendum:  Stephen Travers who is a survivor of the Miami Showband Massacre and is currently taking legal action against the British Government for the release of documentation said on 27/06/2018 that he held Mr Harris who is currently a senior officer in the Northern Ireland Police Commissioner's office, responsible for blocking the release of documentation on the perpetrators.

Creggagh Shoot sponsored by On-Target 1000

Creggagh Shoot sponsored by On-Target 1000

A view north towards Creggagh Field Target Range (circled) on the slopes of Creggagh Hill in The Northern Sperrins seen from Crockbrack to the south.  The two old codgers in the foreground are regulars at the club when they're not hillwalking in the Sperrins

Creggagh Field Target Range by day and by night

Looking west from the summit of Mulloughmore (550 meters)  across the Glendra valley road towards Creggagh ranges (circled)

Creggagh Field Target Club was formed in 2015 after a number of keen target shooters identified the need for a safe and authorised target range in the South Derry/Londonderry area. All the initial members were members of other target clubs which were located a considerable distance from their homes.  The lands on which the range is built have a previous history of target shooting as they were used extensively by Allied forces in the early 1940s in preparation for the coming Normandy landings. The range at that time was used for both rifle and hand gun training. There remains visible evidence on site of the operations carried out at that time.  The club originally designed the range to accommodate 200 and 300m ranges and is passed  for centre fire calibres up to and including .338 Lapua and pistols up to .445 inch. However the need to accommodate other calibres resulted in two more butt stops being constructed in 2017. The club continues to develop and it is soon to finish a 16m pistol range with 10 shooting positions.  The club is situated off the mountain road between Moneyneany and Feeney.

Finbarr Harkin is the Sales Director for a large multi-national body armour company and has worked in ballistic research and design for 20 years. He is a keen shooter himself and his goal is to develop solutions to help the everyday enthusiast in realising his dream of perfecting his shot.  Finbarr has produced an app  called "on-Target 1000" designed to enable a shooter, especially a novice, to get his/her scope on target quickly and efficiently from any distance.

Fine weather in May is a rarity these times but nature smiled on the Northern Sperrins on Sunday 20th May and the members of Creggagh Field Target club shot in bright sunshine with just enough wind to make the Club's first 200 meter shoot interesting. The event was sponsored by Finbarr Harkin, developer of the On-Target 1000 app.

 

Finbarr Harkin developer of the On-Target 1000 app and shoot sponsor

The bright sunshine and cool breeze were more interesting than anticipated as shooters found when  they fired the first rounds in the 15 round competition.  Most shooters assumed individually they were having a once in a lifetime utterly dreadful day until the first squad had finished and took the opportunity to perform a collective postmortem.  Everyone had had an unpleasant surprise and unexpectedly low scores.  My own first fouling/ranging shot struck five inches right and the second three inches left and I didn't get consistent strikes until the final five round target.  This raises interesting future competitional possibilities as regards variations in wind direction and strength at Creggagh Ranges.  Mountain winds are always just a little unpredictable.  There is even a chance that randomly drifting bodies of warm and cool air along the brook may bend light differently.  These are all questions that can only be answered by putting in range time.  Wind behaves differently on every range and the Creggagh shooters will doubtless become more familiar with local conditions over time. The direction of fire is roughly west and the westerly winds are forced up a small valley running southeast to northwest or even across Creggagh hill and down the valley. This raises the possibility of combinations of heat shimmer, lift, drop and drift and who knows; perhaps Creggagh will become known as a very challenging place to shoot.

The facilities at Creggagh Field Target Club are nothing if not comfortable although one could argue that shooters might read the wind more precisely on an exposed firing point.

Consolation for disappointing scores was provided by Thomas Casey and his Barbecue

 

The overall winner of the competition was Robert McClean pictured receiving his prize from Finbarr Harkin.  Third prize went to Ivan Jamison also pictured receiving his prize from Finbarr Harkin.  Second place was taken by Ronan Mc Closkey who decided he wanted the barbecue

On-Target 1000 

This App has been designed to assist a user to get his/her scope on target from any distance quickly and efficiently. You can simply choose your scope type in MILS (milliradian) or MOA from the comprehensive scope menu bar and then input the details as requested after your first shot and the app will show you the corrections that needs to be made using elevation and windage on your scope to ensure that the next shot is absolutely on target.

The app is designed to be clearly visible and used in all light scenarios and the adjustments are such that they can even be operated with a gloved hand (need touch screen fingertip).

The biggest savings you will make with this app is in the initial sighting in of your scope after attachment, it is recommended to first bore scope either by using a bore scope slighter or by looking down the bore and aligning your scope cross hairs with the centre of the bore on the target.

The first shot from any gun (cold barrel) will always be different in placement to subsequent shots and we advise that you begin to input your data after this.

The shooter and the weather conditions also play a huge part in the accuracy of any shot placement and it is for this reason that we recommend a three-shot initial placement after which you take an average to use as your offset from target to input your height and windage.

After imputing these details to your app, it will show you the height and windage changes in clicks according to your particular scope which you need to make to ensure that the next shot is on target.

The beauty of this system is that it can then be used at any distance where it can be normally difficult to make these accurate calculations.

It is also a very useful tool for a spotter who is spotting for several shooters that are using different scope types, he/she  can easily toggle between scope types and call out the height and windage changes to each user.

This app also allows the user to enter details in either Metric or Imperial measurements.

Below is a step by step guide to set up your scope initially.

Step 1
Set up a target at a distance of 100 yards/Metres making sure with a measuring tape or range finder that this distance is accurate. Make sure to set up the target in an area that's safe to fire your rifle.

Step 2
Attach the scope to the rifle. Ensure that the rifle is empty and the breech is open. Install a bore sighter into the muzzle of the rifle barrel according to the instructions that come with the bore sighter. If you do not have a bore sighter then remove the bolt and look down the bore of the barrel until the target is in the centre, then align your crosshairs on to the centre of the target using your height and windage adjustments making sure that the gun has not moved, check a few times to make sure. Note:  These methods will not get you shooting dead on the bullseye but they should get you on the target area to continue your setup.

Step 3
Remove the bore sighter from the muzzle and load one round into the rifle. Take aim at the bullseye of the target and fire 4 rounds. Discount the first round (or the cold barrel shot) and use the average placement of the following 3 shots to determine your distance from the bullseye.

Step 4
Input into the app the distance you were off the target high/low and left or right.

Step 5
Use the Clicks which the apps will indicates to adjust your scope in height and windage.

Your rifle will now be zeroed in at this distance. You can use this app to also zero in your scope at any distance. 

The shoot over and rivalry forgotten the intrepid marksmen tuck into the barbecue.

 The next looked forward-to event at Creggagh will be the opening of the new pistol range.  There are now at least six well-appointed ranges in the area of the Sperrin Mountains including Creggagh and Dunnyboe ranges which surely makes counties Derry and Tyrone the best provided counties in Ireland for target shooting.  

A few miles away from Creggagh at the other end of Scenic Glenelly valley; Practical Pistol Shooters at Dunnyboe Club

 

The author shooting his 1874 Sharps at Dunnyboe/Glensass Ranges

Gun Crime and Perceptions in Ireland

Gun Crime and Perceptions in Ireland

Eighteen, off the leash and loose in the USA and the UK in 1972-73, the author came up against Irish racial stereotypes for the first time and realised that he belonged to a nation widely perceived as violent despite having a low crime rate

In 1972 as an 18-year student on a J1 visitor visa in Miami, Florida I was bashing a cash register for E. K. Kresge and company (now called K-Mart perhaps to conceal the founder's ethnicity) on Biscayne Boulevard.  Miami is a very Jewish community with a huge Cuban presence.  Fidel Castro had recently emptied his jails and asylums and deported the insane and the criminal by boat to Miami - a move of pure brilliance as it simultaneously relieved him of the expense of their upkeep and dumped them on his American enemies.  The crime rate in Miami shot up overnight.  My introduction to Miami included a young Cuban friend showing me the bullet-riddled car belonging to his father whom a rival drug gang had killed.  It was a shock for a kid from Rhode in County Offaly where apart from a few rows at football matches, there hadn't been a violent incident since the old IRA botched an ambush on a Black and Tan Crossley Tender in Croghan - the tans came from the opposite direction to that anticipated and things got lumpy for a while but everyone escaped to tell and retell the tale ad-infinitem until well into the 1970's.  So in 1972 Miami was a quite violent place when up comes a little Jewish lady to my cash register with her purchases:

"Oh Honey, you have such a LOVELY accent!  Where do you come from?"
"Ireland Ma'am".
"Oh Honey!  I'm so sorry; it must be AWFUL to be a refugee".
"Actually ma'am the fighting is all in Northern Ireland".
(blank incomprehension from the nice lady).

The memory of Germany's genocide of the Jewish people was only 25 years old in 1972 and the lady was probably a survivor and she felt keenly for all refugees.  The interesting thing was that in a crime-ridden US city in the middle of the Viet-Nam war where the US was itself committing genocide, this compassionate woman saw Ireland as a violent place.  Such is the power of the media to distort facts.  And it wasn't just Miami.  How many times had I heard of firearms applications turned down with; "what d'you want a gun for when people are killing each other in Northern Ireland?"  The following summer of 1973, took me to a building site in London where I experienced the full virulence of English working class anti-Irish bigotry.  Even as late as 1995 in Saudi Arabia when an English colleague became aware of my interest in firearms he informed our superior he thought I was a terrorist.  Our superior, being himself a refugee from Palestine, treated the report with the disdain it deserved.  Perceptions are paramount.

Ireland has a violent image

My point is that we, the Irish, have a reputation as a violent race and as a nation with a rapidly emerging and politically correct middle class. We are acutely aware of it and in attempting to prove we aren't have taken some extreme steps such as labelling sport shooters as criminals and terrorists.  That the reputation is undeserved matters little as perceptions are paramount.  But is the reputation undeserved?  The facts are disturbing.

The gun control lobby have an unassailable point

Let's remove some vagueness and obfuscation. Gun Control as the solution to gun crime in the US means just that. Control. Go 3,000 miles east to the first landfall which is our benighted little country and "Control means "Ban". "Gun" has a slightly different meaning too when used in conjunction with"control".  To an American the term refers mainly to assault rifles. For the Irish DOJ there is no such ambiguity. Gun Control applies to All firearms. This is no guesswork on my part. At the time of their last attempted ban our DOJ made this clear. To people like myself who have lived through several rounds of gun confiscation over a fifty year period there is no ambiguity whatsoever. Irish authorities suffer from no doubt in this regard; gun ownership is linked to gun crime.  The evidence says otherwise but again perceptions are paramount.

The Irish crime rate is rising. Gun ownership is not the cause but gun control is the effect.  Perceptions see to that

The facts are, as I said, disturbing.  If we are to believe the Irish Times and I don't quite, the Republic of Ireland was a more dangerous place than Northern Ireland in the period 2014-2018 where you were more likely to be a victim of gun crime.  I know Northern Ireland well and the crime rate is quite low especially in rural areas.  Belfast still has its moments.  The facts as presented by the media are contradictory and confusing but there is ample evidence that Dublin in particular is experiencing a rise in crime.  And not just Dublin - my old home in Rhode, County Offaly, so peaceful back in 1972,  has experienced the scourge of drug related crime too.  

Many years ago I published this photo of a friend giving pistol instruction to his sons.  I got into endless trouble over it - not because of the 9mm Glock but because two of the subjects were wearing T-shirts which, as I was later informed, were in the Celtic soccer club colours and as such raised a storm of tribal anger.  As someone with zero interest in or knowledge of soccer I was totally unaware of the effect the photo would have and it shows the power of perceptions

So we have a violent reputation and the media reported facts show our crime rate is rising and our police, civil service, politicians and government are happy to buy into this view of ourselves and part of their response is an attack on gun ownership.  But surely they can distinguish between legal and illegal guns where the former are rarely or never used in gun crime and the latter are the  source and reason for it?  Apparently not. Why is this so?  Is it because the Irish people have shown their willingness to resist injustice, corruption and bad government by force of arms many times in the last 800 years and the official mind, for this reason, mistrusts the law abiding citizenry and legal gun ownership more than it mistrusts criminals? Perhaps it is the Irish intolerance of injustice that worries the official mind.  Why else would the authorities have invested in quantities of arms and ammunition at the time of the 2008 crash?  A criminal is easily dealt with. If he is caught with an illegal gun he goes to gaol. A citizen with a legal firearm is more complicated. That the citizen just wants to shoot rabbits and hasn't  a political thought in his head is irrelevant.  Perceptions are paramount.

A long number of years ago a sheep farmer asked me to sort out a lamb killing problem and I shot a very large dogfox for him which solved the problem.  The man was grateful and complimented me on my marksmanship.  His choice of words betrayed an unintended bias "You're as good as Rambo".  The connection between shooting a lamb-killing dogfox in Kildare and the Hollywood knife-wielding homicidal Vietnam veteran is nonexistent but that is how the man was conditioned to think.  Perceptions again.

 So is gun control based on mistrust?  It would appear so.  The authorities mistrust the citizenry as being prone to armed rebellion and the citizenry mistrust authority for its propensity for lying and the mis-labelling of the citizenry as prone to criminality.




Are our authorities wrongheaded to mistrust the citizen? I believe so. A degree of mistrust of our fellow man is wise but to regard each and every gun owner as a potential criminal is insane. The Irish people's willingness to resort to revolution has been diluted by affluence, EEC membership and secularisation. We have been seduced by the Euro, political correctness, peace and prosperity. There are few today who would go out, rifle in hand like James Connolly, to a certain death. Yet a guard told me as recently as twenty years ago: "you must be in the IRA - you're mad about guns". Old fears and prejudices die hard.



Even assuming the majority of our leaders, civil servants and police are enlightened and that the official dread of firearms is motivated by desire to fight crime and promote justice, they still seem to have missed a salient point.  You can demand justice as much as you want. You have a moral and legal right to do so but what you get is not justice but legislation and the two are not the same. Law is Justice on the cheap. Simplistic solutions to complex problems - something all administrators love.  The problem is that in resolving one injustice you often create another.  Don't bother telling the citizen, as the US government told told Native Americans in the nineteenth century: "give up your guns.  The government will look after you" because that is asking for an act of trust and you have long ago squandered trust.

 

We've all seen this picture.  An old photo of the last few FREE LIVING native Americans with a crudely superimposed caption but it sums up the mistrust that has accumulated over generations between the government and the governed.  The message: don't trust government

Is the gunowner/citizen wrongheaded to withhold trust and respect for the Law, the lawgiver and the law enforcer? Probably to some extent. We should certainly respect justice unconditionally as an abstract ideal. Lawgivers and enforcers are human with all that implies. Some deserve respect. Should we fear them? No but we do because fear works. Trust. Those of us who lived through the betrayals of the Temporary Firearm Custodial Order of 1972 and the banking crisis of 2008 will never trust a politician or civil servant again. Respect. Respect for the law should be absolute while respect for the lawgiver and enforcer must be conditional on their integrity. Do authorities worldwide share their low opinion of citizens? No because I have family members in the NYPD and their civic attitudes are totally different. As one explained to me: "Gun control means good folks can't have guns". Gun Control and gun bans are justice on the very cheap.

Now let us ask the important question. In the face of inevitable gun control/bans being made law by democratically elected but deluded representatives prompted by unelected and biased servants of the state and enforced by a police force with questionable motives- are we helpless? The answer is yes because otherwise we are opposing the rule of law and  they know that  and are are banking on us being afraid and/or unwilling to oppose the rule of law. Sometimes the law is an ass but that is a topic that must wait.  We can write letters to our politicians but of course they will be ignored as usual. We can take recourse to law  and be ignored again - it's happened many times already. They get the benefits of democracy and we get the shaft. None of this is speculation - it is the situation that has pertained for years. There is no legal way out of this cat's pyjamas.

Are we justified in regarding the law as an ass?  A judge will tell you such attitudes are disrespectful nonsense. A member of a discriminated against minority will have a different view

Let me ask another pertinent question.  How does the average citizen view the refusal of our government to reform the Law, the banking system, the Department of Justice, the police and civil service when they are so obviously rotten? We have had years of scandals and ineffective enquiries and botched self regulation. Is it incompetence? Or is it something more sinister. I have asked many people for an opinion and the answers have surprised even myself. A surprising number of people believe politicians are afraid to initiate reform.  Most have pointed to J. Edgar Hoover and the files he kept on politicians as an example of a public servant blackmailing government into doing what is best, not for the country or its citizens, but for its civil service.  Are they all wrongheaded conspiracy  theorists? Personally I don't know. What I do know is that it doesn't much matter in terms of the loss of trust in the people we trusted to run our affairs.  Northern Ireland suffered the pain of the Patton Reforms and survived to become a better society for it. For whatever the reason the Republic of Ireland is to have no Patton style reforms and is a worse society for it. We have been short changed. So maybe there is or there isn't a master puppeteer manipulating our government.  The fact that people even suspect it indicates "corrosive" cynicism and loss of faith. Perceptions cut both ways.

So we are helpless. Is that an end to it? No. There have been examples in the last few years of alienated and powerless majorities reasserting themselves. Donald Trump, Brexit and the rise of Neo-Fascism are all indicative of ignored sections in society espousing extreme and vague ideologies and demanding a say in the way a country is run. These alienated populations are sometimes deluded and don't usually get quite the changes they had hoped for by which time a new administration with a whole new set of character defects has assumed power. It hasn't happened in Ireland yet.  We are too recently emerged from colonialism, poverty, recession and the moral tyranny of the church.  Could the widespread perception of corruption, arrogance and incompetence in public life and the public service lead to extreme ideologies? Racism is on the rise which is merely a device for blaming foreigners for the shortcomings of the governments WE elect. We don't have a fully fledged fascist party - yet. But we had one in the past. Could Eoin o'Duffy's ghost rise again?

The political correctness-obsessed Ireland of 2018 prefers not to recall it had a Fascist party in the thirties.  Our civil servants, police and army suffer from no such political amnesia and fear the return of extreme ideologies and gun bans are their solution

Not many people know this but at the worst point of the previous crash in 1984 when the country was bankrupt, shadowy individuals approached local politicians sounding out support for a takeover by a group of concerned policemen, soldiers, politicians, businessmen and civil servants. My informant,  a female member of a local government who has since died, recognised treason and demurred as did others and the proposed coup was stillborn. As she said at the time: "I wonder what they planned to do with the objectors - the prisons are already full". It was an insane idea but it had adherents. I mention this by way of suggesting the Irish commitment to democracy was not universal.  By the same token we are not immune to the rise of right wing ideologies.  This is all a long way from some enthusiast in Tipperary looking for a .223 rifle  for foxes or a .22 pistol for targets but it places things in perspective.  Injustice, corruption, arrogance ad incompetence sometimes have unexpected and serious consequences and no incident exists in isolation.

I had to look a second time at this subject.  A female member of the National Guard with her John Deere ferrying shooters and their kit to the firing line at Camp Perry, Ohio for that iconic US event, the National Championships. Can you comprehend the vastness of the impossibility of the like ever happening on the Curragh ranges? It really reminds us of the odium with which shooting is regarded by Irish authorities.

The wheels of history grind slowly and everything changes.  Generally war changes our perception of threat more than anything else and there are many who believe the world is closer to war today than ever before. The Doomsday clock sits at 2 minutes to Midnight which represents global Armageddon.The necessity for arming the populace in times of war generally overcomes governments' fears concerning its own citizens.  When the external threat becomes prescient the notion of giving guns to citizens with which to protect the government increases in attractiveness.  All things are relative and since gun control cannot succeed in abolishing war we will see a return to war at some point in the future.  Some people believe this prospect is closer than we think; that Europe is almost back where it was in June 1914 in Sarajevo when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip and the First World War was triggered.  The proliferation in the Balkans of small states inimical to each other  seems to confirm this view.  Should the EU disintegrate post Brexit, war will surely come in time.  My grandfather's and my father's generation lived through two world wars.  I have lived in a war zone in the Middle East but not at home - although Northern Ireland is very close.  long may European peace continue but things do change. We were fortunate the Balkans crisis of the 1980's did not destabilise Europe.

So for the moment at least; living as we do in a time of relative peace, social conformity, increased surveillance and affluence, it is unlikely gun control/bans will lead to anything more than some posturing by a few shooting organisations.  Affluence is important - it keeps people relatively happy and placid as they dissipate their energies in hedonistic pursuits.  We also live in a time of weak government - that could change too and any landslide victory by any party is likely to have a law and order dimension and when that happens the shooter will be cast in the role of an enemy of society. It has happened before. 

I took this photo at Camp Perry National Championships in the USA in 2009.  It shows an Australian competitor's buggy complete with AR15 rifle abandoned outside one of the gunshops while the owner did a bit of retail therapy.  No-one even noticed it much less considered stealing it or arresting the owner for negligence. What does it tell us?

In a previous article "Gun Control Ireland; How Bad Can It Get?" I looked at the various scenarios we are likely to face.  I am now posing the question; "is there anything we can do to ameliorate the effects of Gun Control/Bans?"  The English experience after Hungerford and Dunblane gives us some insight.  Handguns were confiscated en-masse but not all handguns.  Air pistols, long barrelled pistols and black powder pistols were not banned and there seems to be a slight movement towards allowing handguns again.  Apparently some shooters have been able to licence stocked long-barrelled handguns.  This is cold comfort for Ireland since the authorities successfully confiscated air pistols along with everything else in 1972 and since reloading is effectively banned, black powder shooting is thereby impossible. In my previous articles I dealt with the closure and refusal of planning approval for shooting ranges and increased restrictions on the firearms trade.  The prospects are not good.  It might be a good for shooting enthusiasts to begin with air pistols and gradually work up to a position where a greater variety of handguns might be permitted.  Perhaps a court case could be launched to allow black powder.  But before any initiative has a chance of success it would be necessary to construct more shooting ranges.  It is asking a lot of the Irish shooting community which excels more in infighting than in cooperative initiatives.  And if all this weren't enough there are the matters of Brexit and a possible United Ireland which would undoubtedly impact on shooting sports.  As one shooting friend is fond of saying; "it's time to get fond of my 22".

Is the "Rambo" label always unjustified?  The fact is the authorities and the media will always find an enthusiast who justifies their stereotypes of shooters

I remember a time when a farmer couldn't licence a 22 Hornet for foxes and before that I was told when I applied for my first 22 over forty nine years ago: "what do you want a rifle for? Haven't you a shotgun?" Our government might decide to let us keep our 22's but to assume we are secure in our ownership of small bore firearms is a mistake.  ALL firearms will be held at the pleasure (or whim) of the guardians  Of the peace.  

Ballykinler (British) Military Ranges.  I wanted a photo of myself with a 25-pounder which I had trained on with the FCA forty years previously so the C.O. told me to go ahead.  When I visited Cathal Brugha Barracks in 2002 to visit my pistol, confiscated in 1972, I tried to take a photo outside the main gate.  I was followed down the street by two military policemen and detained for questioning. And we give out about the British?

How many people have been shot by the Gardai in the last twenty years? I have been trying for some time to get an answer to this question and there seems to be no official figure anywhere online.  On the other hand there are numerous sources that list the 88 members of the force who have been killed in the line of duty since the foundation of the state.  Apart from this precise figure the crime statistics for Ireland appear to be in disarray due to sloppy reporting and skewed analysis of crime over the last ninety years.  Various newspaper reports claim the Republic of Ireland has a higher crime rate than the United Kingdom.  No-one disputes this assertion and it is most likely correct.  The dearth of data on police killings in the Republic of Ireland is worrying.  The PSNI are understandably cautious about using their guns because in the supercharged tribalism that pertains in Northern Ireland all shootings are regarded as sectarian until proven otherwise. The Republic of Ireland is less sensitive in this regard and there is still a tendency to give the police the benefit of the doubt.  In the light of the Abbeylara and other incidents this may not be a good idea.

There is also a perceptible tendency among feminists to portray gun ownership as part of the abuse of women issue.  In her otherwise excellent article of 23 August 2012 on http://www.thedetail.tv/articles/who-owns-northern-Ireland-s-153-000-legally-held-guns Kathryn Torney is at pains to show that the majority of firearms are owned by older men.  She uses visually striking graphics based on statistics provided by the PSNI showing gun ownership by gender and age. 

The message is clear.  Guns are mostly owned by older men. The statistics are accurate but the effect is to make older men look dangerous and criminal.  This is inaccurate and is not borne out by the crime statistics.  The illustration furthermore shows a handgun and an assault rifle which is an inaccurate reflection of the types of firearm commonly licensed in Northern Ireland (shotguns are the commonest type of firearm). Was the author aware of the skewed impression she created?  I don't know but again perceptions are paramount.


If the reader has gotten this far he will realise I am (1) a conspiracy theorist; (2) a cock-up theorist and (3) a pessimist and (4) a realist.  Bad news travels well and most of the perceptions of guns, shooters and shooting are negative.  Many in the shooting organisations agree with this assessment and try as best their can to counter bad publicity by supporting worthy charities and so on.  I admire and support these people.  On the other hand there are many in shooting sports whose record is less praiseworthy and who have undone much good work.  Perhaps the most blameworthy are those who through their greed, arrogance and megalomania have demoralised, alienated and made cynical many otherwise positively minded shooters.  It's a story that makes sad telling.  How many times have I gone target shooting or hunting and encountered fellow shooters whose behaviour has caused me to wonder why I bother with such people?  But then I return from a particularly fulfilling day in the field or on the range and marvel at the unselfish gentlemanliness of many.  Time will tell which group predominates.

One can be overly pessimistic. This is my old apartment (circled) in Saudi Arabia twenty five years ago; a grim high rise building on the edge of the desert with a strict dress code and an absolute ban on all firearms where I was once berated by the Motaween (religious police) for whistling an Irish tune on my way to work.  Life is better today.