The Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, has invoked the 1925 Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act to insist that the owners of 200,000 legally held firearms must keep the weapons secure in steel cages bolted to walls.
In a press release yesterday he said the regulation will take effect from July 1st for all new applicants. Owners of existing licences have until July 1st, 2001, to have the cages installed in their homes.
Garda Headquarters had no suggestions as to where the cages might be acquired for the State's 203,000 legally-held guns, mostly shotguns and .22 rifles used for vermin control and hunting. The re are no legally held handguns. It was stated that the move was a result of the "increased number of licensed firearms being stolen from dwelling-houses and unattended vehicles in recent years and subsequently used in the commission of serious crimes".
The latest available figures show 11 firearms were reported stolen in the State in 1998.
No figures were available yesterday for the numbers of such firearms stolen and subsequently used in crime. The 1998 Garda Annual Report shows the number of crimes in which firearms were used has declined sharply in recent years. In 1998 there were 221 such crimes compared with 582 in 1994.
Superintendents are being instructed to direct gardai to carry out inspections of houses as firearms licences are being renewed.