The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability today conducted an investigative hearing in response to House resolution No. 970 filed by Congressman Rodolfo Farinas on "alleged Anomalous Transactions Involving High ranking Officials of the Philippine Natrional Police." The Resolution called for a look into the alleged 900 high-powered missing rifles which were later found in the hands of insurgents, and the anmalous Werfast courier service that was engaged by the PNP to deliver apporved firearms licenses to their holders. The hearing however, went beyond these issues and likewise discussed the difficult and egregious firearms licensing polices, the centralization of gun licensing in Camp Crame, Quezon City, the difficulty in obtaining Permits to Carry, the administrative fund raising contained in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of RA 10591, as well as all other questionable provisions of the IRR.
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Tag: Licensing
PROGUN Opposes personal appearance at Camp Crame for licensing and renewals
Last 3 March 2014 all PNP Civil Security group Satellite Offices in the various Regions of the Philippines were ordered closed and its personnel ordered to report to The firearms and Explosives Office at Camp Crame Quezon City, for duty. According to the PNP Memorandum, licensing and renwals of licenses shall now be centralized in Camp Crame Quezon City, and all lincesed gun owners will have to make the trip to personally appear to apply for and/or renew their gun licenses.
PROGUN strongly opposes such policy of personal appearance at Quezon City for all licensing and renawals of licenses. The Philippines is an archipelagic country composed of several thousands of islands over which one million five hundred thousand licensed gun owners reside and are scattered. Centralization of all licensing and renewals of gun licenses would require all of these licened gun owners to travel all the way to Camp Crame Quezon City to have their licenses renewed. This is clearly a substantial burden upon licensed gun owners who may not afford the cost of travel and who may not have the time to spare away from their jobs and businesses to make the long trip wither by plane or ship. In all other licensing such as drivers licenses and business permits, the application, processing, and approval is done by local regional offices.
Moreover, as experience has shown, whenever lincesing or permits is centralized in one office or person, which has sole discretion whether to grant applciations or not, there is potential for abuse and corruption.
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PROGUN strongly opposes such policy of personal appearance at Quezon City for all licensing and renawals of licenses. The Philippines is an archipelagic country composed of several thousands of islands over which one million five hundred thousand licensed gun owners reside and are scattered. Centralization of all licensing and renewals of gun licenses would require all of these licened gun owners to travel all the way to Camp Crame Quezon City to have their licenses renewed. This is clearly a substantial burden upon licensed gun owners who may not afford the cost of travel and who may not have the time to spare away from their jobs and businesses to make the long trip wither by plane or ship. In all other licensing such as drivers licenses and business permits, the application, processing, and approval is done by local regional offices.
Moreover, as experience has shown, whenever lincesing or permits is centralized in one office or person, which has sole discretion whether to grant applciations or not, there is potential for abuse and corruption.
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Unregistered firearms do not have to be loose firearms
Examining the false concepts behind loose firearms and why registration doesn't reduce gun crime. When discussing matters of policy, it's important to define our terms because cloudy thinking can lead to misunderstanding or even outright deceit. Gun control advocates in particular like to use sneaky tactics: they tend to make assertions and then use the grey area of confusion to make their point. Let's take the concept of 'loose firearms'. For most people, the term is just shorthand for 'guns that are in some way illegal and used by bad guys'. People also tend to talk about loose firearms and unregistered firearms while using the two interchangeably. A gun control advocate may say that if each firearm is not registered to the individual, the number of loose (or 'bad-guy' owned) firearms would increase. This is an example of using an imprecise label to make a point that, upon examination, is flat-out wrong. Continue Reading
Gun ban: A kneejerk Reaction to Crime
In light of the so-called "road rage incidents" by Jason Ivler and Richard Ordonez, and the Ampatuan Massacre in Maguindanao, there have been the usual calls by the police and anti-gun groups to impose further restrictions on civilian firearms ownership and to impose gun bans as a means of curbing such violence. PROGUN being an anti-crime organization has always condemned such criminal acts. But is a gun ban the solution to such problems? Will the suspension of licensed civilians who have permits-to-carry outside of residence ("PTCFOR") solve these problems of crime on our streets? Continue Reading
License the Individual not the Firearm
| Why do we license guns? Continue Reading |