When a firearm costs P15,000 and the initial license fee costs P7,000, something is wrong. Similarly, the same problem arises when the permit-to-carry costs P10,000 to P12,000, or nearly 3/4 the cost of the gun. In some instances, the PTCFOR costs MORE that the firearm itself.
Regulatory fees should be just that: they should be reasonable enough to regulate the object or activity sough to be regulated. But when the regulatory fees become so high that they already become ridiculously expensive or unreasonable for the activity or object sought to be regulated, then such fees already become arbitrary, confiscatory, whimsical, and become legally questionable. The Constitution places a limit on the right of government to tax, such that such right must not be exercised in an arbitrary, excessive, and unreasonable manner. The power to tax does not carry with it the power to destroy. Stated otherwise, the government may not legally raise the taxes so high as to effectively destroy or diminish the activity sought to be regulated.
When a gun license fee , permit, or tax approaches the actual price of the gun itself or exceeds it, then the fee becomes excessive and confiscatory. This would be the same as when a driver’s license fee costs as much as the car itself: No one could afford to pay for it. Thus, the activity or object sought to be regulated would be destroyed.
Ironically, the people who are most affected by such policies, the firearms dealers, should be the ones to lobby for the lowering of firearms fees: their business is directly and adversely affected by such confiscatory policies by becoming so unaffordable that gun owners would chose instead not to purchase their firearms legally or obtain permits to carry, and instead chose to buy and carry loose firearms. This policy of over-regulation is now likewise backfiring against the PNP by a marked increase in non-compliance with the rules, and thus an increase also in the illegal firearms on the streets. Apparently, this boomerang effect was never thought of by the police when they chose to raise firearms fees to excessive levels. Making it so difficult for gun owners to legalize their firearms would simply compel them to go illegal, thus exacerbating the problem or criminality.
In a course called “Law and economics” this phenomenon or over-regulation is fundamental or classic error in law drafting: Excessive penalties and/or over-regulation in fact INCREASES and/or ENCOURAGES people to break the law rather than comply with it. Apparently, our policy makers in the PNP and the government have not given this much thought.
Time comes when this PTC is more expensive than the cheapest Armscor and ShooterArms-brand Firearms that you can buy …. then Civilians opt to choose Paltiks and other backyard made-guns like Ingram and Uzi thus PNP Gun-Control Policy by increasing the Fees becomes Useless…
This will result an increase in Corruption within the PNP FEO too… many civilian gun-owner will choose to pay fees under the table, more padrino transactions and worst Police officers will knock on the doors of Gun-owners to extort money since they know that their guns have expired licenses
Its true now, You can buy China firearms like Tokarev clone for 7thousand pesos only. And the PTC is 10 to 12 thousand pesos. Come to think of it. China firearms is dependable cheap pistols. Why not PTC fee depend on the price of the firearm. Lets say 20% based on the price of the firearm.
During martial law, gun ownership, much more carry by civilians was taboo. Yet street crimes such as mugging, holdups still occured. To circumvent, commuters resorted to improvised weapons as means for self-protection. Among these were single-shot, throw-away pens guns whose quality ranged from high to downright dangerous. Civilians took the risk of life and/or liberty just to be able to protect themselves. “better to go down fighting, than helpless” so to speak.
With the new PNP restrictions, expect the proliferation of these.
In those days we could not even buy a MACE OC spray commercially. So I improvised my own. With a blender, I ground and squeezed the juice out of about two kilos of siling labuyo’. Then mixed it with a small amount of cooking oil using the same blender. Then, with a series of cloth and paper filters, I removed all solid particles until I got a low-to-medium viscosity oily fluid. The chili juice is the irritant, while the cooking oil serves as the carrier and prevents evaporation.
I placed the mixture in an eempty squeeze bottle of nasal spray, with its plastic tube “snorkel“ removed. The bottle’s cover with an O-ring prevents the mixture from spilling, but opening it only takes a second, a boon in an emergency situation. A strong squeeze of the bottle with one’s thumb and forefinger will send a jet (not spray, that is why I removed the snorkel) of the mixture to a distance of about two meters, enough for “close encounters with the evil kind”. A blast in the face of the BG would cause severe eye and skin irritation that would “distract his attention”. Injury will however be temporary.
I never got the chance to “fire it in anger”, but a friend, who also concocted one was able to subdue a drunk who was getting violent.
A friend used to carry paper sachets of sugar or iron filings in his breast pocket. He once blinded a BG by throwing iron filings at his eyes. Its is a local version of a ninja’s “Mitsuboshi”, a less -innocuous weapon during their era.
Any comment on these…is it strictly implemented…in other words…walang “extra charges” please see link: http://www.fed.org.ph/fed/download/PTCFOR%20APPLICATION.pdf
http://www.pinoyguns.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=23002
Check out my thread in PG.