Sir, – John Tierney (July 26th) produces some contradictory and flawed arguments in his rhetoric for the reduction of guns in our country based on the tragic deaths in a Denver cinema.
In the US, each member of the public has a constitutional right to bear arms, whereas in Ireland, having a gun licence is a privilege and one must go through much more rigorous background checking. Additionally, American citizens are allowed to use their guns not just for recreation, but for personal defence (against other people, and potentially their own government). In many states shooting an aggressor (armed or unarmed) is legal, which is certainly not the case in the Republic.
I dispute Mr Tierney’s assertion that guns are entrenched in Irish society: by his own admission, the firearm-owning community is small in size, and a significant proportion comprises farmers who use guns to protect their livestock. Is Mr Tierney purporting that farmers are projecting their “pent-up aggression and physiological issues” on the foxes and stray dogs that maraud their lambs?
His suggestion that we not be lulled into thinking these events (such as the Denver shooting) happen only in faraway countries must be countered by the statistics: an event such as that which happened in Denver has never occurred in Ireland, whereas it is all too common in North America. While there is always the possibility of an Irish tragedy created by a recreational firearm owner, it is just as likely that a member of An Garda Síochána could run amok.
In my opinion Mr Tierney is using the tragic events in Denver to further his own aims of removing guns from the hands of recreational hunters in order to save the “non-human members of society,” a term that is surely oxymoronic.
Were Mr Tierney’s wish for guns to be eliminated to come true, would he propose the reintroduction of the wolf to control Ireland’s burgeoning deer population? Ireland’s hunters are a vital part of ecological management. They hone their skills (to ensure the most humane death of their quarry) in legitimate and extremely well-controlled recreational target shooting ranges.
I see Mr Tierney is the campaigns director for the Association of Hunt Saboteurs. Were guns to be removed from the hands of Ireland’s farmers, the control of foxes would then be undertaken by other means, such as snaring, poisoning and of course hunting hounds. Should we assume Mr Tierney would be happy with that?
My fellow recreational hunters in Ireland and I are in favour of close and secure gun control. Ireland currently has that. The types of guns and the quantity of ammunition that the gunman purchased legally in Denver are not permitted in Ireland.
To foment panic about legal guns in the hands of Ireland’s hunters and target shooters by comparing them to a cinema killer in what is “a faraway country” (to use Mr Tierney’s words), and a very different society is not only disingenuous, it is insulting to Mr Tierney’s fellow members of Irish society. – Yours, etc,