With about 700 hundred weapons handed into Garda stations around the country I view the gun amnesty which ran for the last two months as success in a number of ways. Firstly these lethal weapons are now out of circulation and that has to be welcomed. As a TD who lobbied the Minister for Justice to bring in the gun amnesty I would have been happy if only one deadly weapon has been taken out of circulation. Those who measure the results in mere numbers of weapons are taking a very narrow view of things.

Furthermore with the amnesty now ended tough new anti gun laws will come into force. Those now found in possession of firearms will pay a very serious price for their crimes. For a range of offences mandatory sentences of 5 and 10 years will be introduced. In addition new offences will be created, including sawing off the barrel of a shotgun. Sawing off the barrel of a shotgun gets a maximum jail sentence of 10 years and a mandatory minimum sentence of five years. I never saw the gun amnesty as an end in itself but it was an important first step. It has removed guns from circulation before they fell into the wrong hands ? now we are moving on to the next part of our crackdown which should see those who resort to violent crime removed from our communities through longer prison sentences.