We have been informed that around 6,000 licensed shooters have bagged about 2,000 birds during the 15-day spring shooting season, which works out to around 0.3 birds for each shooter. By contrast, UK hunters can bag 100 wood pigeons and collared doves in a single day, and they do not see it as particularly big deal.

Before any reader comes up with it, turtledoves, the favourite quarry species of the Maltese shooter, are protected in Britain. But then collared doves are protected in Malta.

If the local authorities want to be more credible, they must come up with a more tangible and substantial offering to the gods of the EU Commission; this would be to reduce the firepower of Maltese shooters to two cartridges at every loading (automatic shotguns are supposed to take only three shots in all, but for those who flout the law, this capacity is religiously increased to five shots).

Such an option is not impossible; Finland, a EU member, has adopted such a policy.

My suggestion is to leave all double-barrelled shotguns, side-by-sides and over-and-unders as they are, and have the magazine capacity of all autos reduced to one cartridge; that, and another in the breech, would convert the weapon into a double loader.

Shooters can still indulge in clay pigeon shooting, where two shots are the norm. Police would be able to tell at a glance if the reduction has been effected, the crimping being easily visible from the outside of the tube.

But, and a big but, anybody caught using an untreated auto for game shooting in Malta should have such a weapon confiscated, and scrapped without being compensated.

Less favoured shooters, those not blessed with a prime game shooting location, could still get a fair share of the game.

By rendering shooting more difficult the so-called ‘massacres’ would be few and far between.