1,300 firearms stolen in last three years

More than 1,300 firearms, mainly shotguns, have been stolen in the Republic in robberies over the last three years, gardaí have…

More than 1,300 firearms, mainly shotguns, have been stolen in the Republic in robberies over the last three years, gardaí have confirmed.

While few of the weapons have been stolen in Dublin, Garda districts immediately adjacent to the capital have been the scene of most of the robberies. The Carlow/Kildare Garda division recorded 109 such robberies between 2002 and 2004, during which 172 weapons were stolen.

This was followed by the Laois/Offaly division, where 151 firearms were stolen during 85 robberies over the same period, and the Wexford/Wicklow division, where 147 guns were taken in 76 robberies.

While the majority of robberies involved the theft of just one weapon, more than one firearm was taken in a number of cases. However, details relating to the circumstances of the thefts were not released.

READ MORE

The new figures compiled for the Department for Justice reveal for the first time the extent to which legally held firearms are ending up in the hands of criminals.

Fine Gael's spokesman on justice, Jim O'Keeffe TD, to whom the figures were released, said he was "amazed" by the large numbers of weapons being stolen.

Current trends were "really very, very worrying", particularly against the background of a 38 per cent rise in gun crime last year.

The new figures underlined the need for a debate on gun ownership, Mr O'Keeffe added, and he called on Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to introduce a firearms act which would deal with all elements of gun ownership.

Of the 1,330 weapons stolen between 2002 and 2004, 961 were shotguns, 271 were rifles, 28 were pistols or revolvers and the remaining 70 were classified as "other".

Firearms have been used in a spate of robberies recently, including raids on cash vans delivering money to ATM machines.

Conor Lally

Conor Lally

Conor Lally is Security and Crime Editor of The Irish Times