PROGUN has always supported the amnesty programs of the PNP. This is a stand which is contrary to that of AFAD which stridently opposes the amnesty since it is seen as cutting down on their sales. Gun owners like every consumer, follow the dictates of the market. If there is a cheaper alternative, the consumer will go for it and buy it. For the gun owners, if that cheaper item happens to be a 2nd hand loose firearm selling for 1/8 of the price than that being sold by a dealer, then the temptation is too compelling to pass up. But the less fortunate gun owner who makes such a purchase (since it is all he could afford), is not a criminal per se. He is simply an individual who would otherwise purchase his gun from legitimate channels, if only he could afford it. The skyrocketing prices of guns from AFAD dealers and the accompanying cartel that controls the firearms market, makes it prohibitively costly for most Filipinos to purchase their guns from such sources. Thus the amnesty program is a good way of bringing these guns and their owners within the fold of the law.

PROGUN likewise supports qualification requirements for owners of guns, which include psychological and proficiency testing. However, once the gun owner passes this test then he should be issued a gun license as a matter of right. The statement in the article that “anyone can potentially own a gun” is a farce, considering the current lengthy and costly list of requirements for gun licenses which are imposed by the PNP FED. They make it so difficult to qualify and go through the process that some people just simply give up.

The figures given in Prof. Oreta’s study on loose firearms in the Philippines are questionable. First, what source was used and how exactly was the counting done? Second, how can unregistered firearms be counted with accuracy since precisely, they have no record of their existence? Common sense tells us that firearms which have no record cannot be counted, since there is no basis.

The number of licensed firearms in the Philippines is not a moral issue. Assuming that there are 1.2 million licensed gun owners in the country, who behave responsibly, there is nothing wrong with that. Gun ownership, no matter how many, is not immoral. In fact, the catholic Church even has a patron saint for marksmen, St. Gabriel Possenti, who is purported to have used a firearm to prevent a woman from being assaulted and raped by a band of brigands. Nothing in the doctrine of the Catholic Church makes it immoral or wrong to own a gun, per se.

We agree that the PNP has a conflict of interest in firearms issues since a large part of their earnings are taken from the exhorbitant license fees paid by the gun owners. They cannot continue to charge and collect from gun owners such fees and yet refer to them as criminals. That is why PROGUN advocates the etablishment of an independent CIVILIAN gun licensing agency, which would regulate the firearms trade and ownership.