From the NTSA website:

Minister Dermot Ahern Outlines Handgun Ban

Written by NTSA

Thursday, 20 November 2008

The Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform, Mr. Dermot Ahern has outlined new proposals to seriously curtail the licensing of handguns in the state. The full text of his announcement can be found here.

The NTSA has no further details on how exactly this new regime will be implemented, but wish to point to the following paragraph in the Minister's statement "The Minister is prepared to make very limited exceptions in relation to Olympic sports only." Until we have further information, we are advising our members not to initiate any license applications for the present.

The Minister has also specified that radical tightening of the procedures for licensing handguns will be adopted and we assume that these will also apply to our members when they are published. We will advise you should any further details become available.

This is currently the main topic of discussion in several online forums in Ireland and abroad, whether from the point of view of shooters, or from the legal angle, or from the political side of the story. Where this all ends is as yet unclear. The Minister has issued a press release, nothing more as yet. What happens next is critical. If he now takes his intended direction to the Firearms Consultation Panel and engages in discussion with the stakeholders, then we can probably address his concerns while safeguarding our sport, and the FCP will have proven its worth to every target shooter in the country. If he simply tries to railroad a fait accompli through, that may well undo years of work and enormous amounts of progress towards a fair, equitable and sane system of firearms legislation.

Right now, we can but hope - and try to pursuade him that the FCP is the correct route to take.