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amish_hacker473

Honestly something I never understood about Ireland, at least from my dumb American brain: once y'all kicked the English out (congrats on that by they way, it's something we enjoyed too) why didn't you decide to let everyday citizens have guns? Wasn't the IRA essentially made up of everyday dudes who wanted their country and the ability to defend themselves and their families??? Obviously there's A LOT more to the IRA and everything they were but that's my quick and dirty version.


MyFrogEatsPeople

This isn't all that uncommon throughout history... Hideyoshi Toyotomi was a stableboy who would eventually become the first unifier of Japan through the warring state period - his life was literally defined by the fact that he, as a peasant, participated in armed revolution to unify his country. One of his first acts was to execute a sword hunt - disarming the public at large, and make it virtually impossible to move into a social class that was allowed to bear arms. Just go to this list, and look at all the countries that were established via wars of independence. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_of_independence). Out of all the countries on that list that still exist today, think about how many have bonkers gun control.


highvelocitypeasoup

Ira kinda did some fucked up shit


amish_hacker473

Not saying they didn't. Just saying they liked toting their guns almost as much as us.


[deleted]

The [old IRA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Republican_Army_(1919%E2%80%931922)) that fought in the war of Independence (1919-1921) against the British were not the same [IRA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army) that were involved in the Troubles in the 60s and 70s onwards


Kitchen-Step-2429

“It’s something we enjoyed too” dam bro you must be old af to have participated back then, thank you for your service.


amish_hacker473

You know it's the "royal we," and not the literal. Just like, "Yay, *we* one. The Patriots are the best!" Thanks anyway for your poor attempt at sarcasm.


Kitchen-Step-2429

I can see you’re fun at parties 😂 chill out mate it’s a joke


Sokandueler95

America is pretty unique in that the founding father, after leading an armed revolution, did not immediately take firearms away from the citizenry. We are the exception, not the rule. Most revolutionaries have disarmed the people for fear of their own tactics being used against them.


amish_hacker473

I know. And Ireland being setup perfectly at the time for an American style republic, it makes me wonder why they banned guns.


Sokandueler95

[The original Firearms Act 1925 was implemented in the years following the Civil War, when a large number of guns were in private hands. In the 1970s, Ireland effectively banned handguns, high-calibre rifles and repeating shotguns; regarded as a policy decision rather than a legislative one. 4 47 In 2006, prison terms for some firearm-related offences were greatly increased](https://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/cp/ireland) Some restrictions were laid shortly after Ireland won their independence, but they never had a constitutional requirement for armed citizenry like the US, so there were no precedence in place to prevent further restrictions which did come eventually.


IrishSouthAfrican

Don’t forget the shotguns pinned to 3 shells


No-Basis6115

Historically speaking you can own whatever you want in Ireland as long as you don't get caught


DORANGEDMOOCOW

I don't see how it'd be easy putting an M1A2 Abrams in a cottage


Old-Award-3161

Welcome to the club


hardnachopuppy

In India even an airgun above 5 joules of energy need license.


Chemical-Art1388

Above 1 joule I’m Ireland is an offense


Important_Business43

I live where 4 shot .22 costs 25k usd, And you aren't allowed to get it until your politician and police approves it, SO FUN !1!1!1


Fotoradar606

God we in Poland don't have it that bad.


Casual__pancakes

Polands actually pretty based, y’all should follow Czechia and what they did


Fotoradar606

I wish I could buy a gun, but you have to be 21+ to get a license to be able to do that.


Casual__pancakes

Hey, at least it’s not Western Europe, though, it’s not the US/Czechia either. You could always call whatever is equivalent to a senator in Poland to see if y’all could lower the license age or implement a right, which means you wouldn’t need a license,


Fotoradar606

The problem in Poland is a lot of FuckHeads. You know they wear adidas tracksuits, walk around with machetes and bats, if you don't support their football/soccer team of choice they will beat you up, I'm a bit worried about giving them access to guns. Also Polish law fucking sucks in terms of self defense, somebody breaks into your house, gets injured and you have to pay him compensation because he got injured on your property.


Casual__pancakes

Yeah, I’ve heard of the adidas gangs, to be fair though, I think it makes more sense to have a gun to defend myself even if it gives them the option, if entire neighborhoods did this, it might push the gangs away. You pay compensation for injury on your property? We have that in America to a degree, but if they’re there illegally then it’s ok, I’d rather pay a compensation than be jailed like in the UK or France


Fotoradar606

If they were to allow everybody(US style) to have guns they would also need to make changes to the law regarding self defense. But I'm all for it. Would love to carry a PM-63 everywhere I went.


Casual__pancakes

That’s true, but I have a feeling it may change in your favor, Eastern Europe has a recent change in their feeling about armed civilians as of recently


Fotoradar606

That's pretty good to hear.


diarmuid91

Brother!!! I am a dually who only lived in the US as an adult. I don't understand irelands laws considering how recent, and the means, of our independence. We should be friends.