These are hard times for gun owners. With the recent spate of gun violence incidents such as the death of a 7 year old child by a stray bullet during New Year’s Eve, and the shooting rampage by a deranged man in Cavite which killed 8 people, there are now calls again for a reconsideration of a gun ban in the Philippines. The Gunless Society advocates and usual hypocrite politicians and leftist media, are all using these isolated incidents as a basis for a renewed call to ball all civilian firearms ownership in the Philippines. We have seen this type of behavior before in the United Kingdom in the aftermath of the Dublane School shooting in 1996, and in Australia after the Port Arthur Shooting, which led to total gun bans in both countries.
Will we allow such to happen in the Philippines? Keep dreaming.
Insisting on gun owners’ rights as a civil liberty is not insensitivity to such shooting tragedies. While we do condole with the victims and condemn these acts of gun violence, we should not allow the issues to be muddled into glorifying the vested interests of anti-gun groups or to be used as political mileage for unsavory and publicity hungry politicians. Neither will be allow licensed law abiding gun owners to be made scapegoats and wrongfully be portrayed as the perpetrators of these incidents, which is utterly false.
Licensed gun owners are NOT the problem; the problem is loose and unlicensed firearms in the hands of criminals. The problem is also an enforcement problem of existing laws which already stiffly penalize with capital punishment, illegal possession of loose firearms and criminal acts of homicide using an unlicensed firearm, but which are not enforced on criminals. Hence, honest and law abiding licensed firearms owners who had nothing to do with such criminal acts, should not be blamed or demonized for such incidents.
From my Cold Dead Hands.
Imposing a gun ban will NOT solve the problem of gun violence. In fact the only people who will abide by and will be affected by the gun ban are licensed gun owners, who do not crimmit gun related crimes. However, the criminals who by definition are law breakers and do not follow the law, will not comply with any gun ban and will continue to commit crimes and acts of violence with loose and unregistered firearms which are untraceable. Every election period during the gun ban hundreds of people are killed in shooting incidents, by and large through election violence among politicians and local warlords in the provinces, and still also, by common crimes. A gun ban merely succeeds in making law abiding citizens sitting ducks for criminals, by disarming licensed gun owners and making them easy victims.
Licensed Gun owners are NOT criminals. By obeying and following the laws on licensed gun ownership, they are law abiding citizens.
There is no moral issue in owning a gun. Gun ownership is not immoral. Elciting the help of the Catholic Church in demonizing gun ownership, is a below the belt argument which ignores the favorable doctrine of the Catholic Church on firearms and legitimate self defense, and the Catholic patron Saint of handgunners, St. Gabriel Possenti.
Giving up some rights, means giving up all. In short, we will not give in.
NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!
Keep up the fight or give up the right!
Perhaps it’s high time that we start advocating for a constitutional right to bear arms in this country.
fallujah on Gun Control
The issues surrounding firearms ownership in this country can ultimately be traced to law enforcement OR LACK THEREOF. When the day comes that Philippine law enforcent agencies prove to us Filipinos that they can properly “Serve and Protect” will be the day i give up my licensed and legally acquired firearm. If the PNP can replicate the efficiency and effectiveness of the British Police or the NBI come close to their American counterparts will be the day i join Nandy Pacheco’s gunless society.
For now NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER Keep up the fight and DONT GIVE UP THE RIGHT!
A long deceased former Phil. president/dictator tried to impose his own version of gun control when he declared martial law in 1972, and what did he accomplish for his trouble?
1. More illegal firearms in the hands of warlords, communist rebels and Muslim secessionists
2. The military collected a lot of WW2 small arms which was promptly replaced by warlords, communist rebels and Muslim secessionists with new and updated weapons.
3. Local production of so called “paltiks” became an industry. (so much so that a lot of American companies started importing Phils. made 1911 pistols to legally sell in the U.S.)
4. Gun smugglers made a lot of money
5. The wrong people having guns to terrorize and oppress the rest of us who didnt have them.
Gun control, anyone?