Data released by the Police Service of Northern Ireland has provided a rare insight into the service's firearms licensing database. Kathryn Torney from The Detail investigative news website in Belfast explores the data

The Detail has been given rare access to information stored on the Police Service of Northern Ireland's (PSNI) Firearms database in response to a Freedom of Information request.

We have analysed detailed information provided on each of the 59,585 people living in Northern Ireland who currently hold firearms licences. In each case, we were given each gun owner's age, gender, the police district they live in, the number of weapons they own and the conditions of use on their licence.

We found that almost 60,000 members of the public own over 146,000 firearms with the remaining 7,018 legally-held guns belonging to serving police and prison officers.

The data provided relates to the content of the PSNI's firearms database as of March 1st, 2012. Individual owner details were not provided for the serving police and prison officers.

We carried out our analysis as the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland is consulting on proposed changes to firearms licensing laws including increasing the cost of applying for a licence and reducing the legal age of gun ownership to 12.

The lower age limit is now 16 and it currently costs the PSNI more to run the licensing scheme than they recover in fees.

Our analysis of the detailed data provided by the PSNI includes the following key findings:



Of the 59,585 licence holders we have detailed information on, 98% are male.

The average age of Northern Ireland's gun owners is 53. The youngest is 17 and the oldest 103.

Gun Graphic age Photograph: Graphic

A total of 2,924 licenses have 'Personal Protection Weapon' among the conditions of use. These holders include ex-PSNI, civilians and prison officers.

Some of the licence holders with the largest gun holdings have paintball games among their licence conditions. This includes eight people who own between 150 and 175 firearms each.

One 51-year-old male owns 109 firearms – including an ex-PSNI Personal Protection Weapon. The conditions for his use include target shooting, sound moderator, collector and sporting purposes.

Each firearm certificate holder has conditions listed on their licence.

The data we were given shows that the most common condition codes featured on Northern Ireland's firearms licences relate to sporting purposes and vermin control.

Other more unusual condition codes used include 'big game use outside the UK' (15 licences), re-enactment and theatrical use (51 in total), weapons on display in Orange Halls (1 licence), shark shooting (1) and underwater research (1).

The full firearms data released by the PSNI is available below this article. The figures in row 30 relate to the PSNI and row 31 to the DoJ firearms "loaned" to serving prison officers. The other document explains the condition codes.

Some records have been allocated to 'X District' which does not exist as a policing district. These records did not have a local police station assigned to them on the PSNI's database.

The issue of legally-held firearms recently hit the media headlines after Northern Ireland's Health Minister Edwin Poots fired two shots into the air from his legally held shotgun to warn off intruders at his home.

The PSNI said it was investigating the incident after Mr Poots fired from an upstairs bedroom at his house near Lisburn in Co Antrim in June.

Here's the list of district codes and details that will help you make sense of the data on gun ownership.

Districts gun graphic Photograph: Graphic



Please take a look at the data and tell us what you think of it and arms control in Northern Ireland in the comments.

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