Babe's Eye View article

The proposal for a total gun ban is totally unacceptable to many people, especially those who have experienced what it’s like to be helpless before criminals. The Philippine National Police rationalizes the proposal by saying there has been a decrease in gun-related crimes since the imposition of the Comelec gun ban this January—but that’s because of enhanced police visibility due to checkpoints particularly in election hotspots in the country.

According to statistics, 98 percent of gun-related crimes like kidnappings, robbery-holdups, carnappings and murder are committed with the use of unlicensed firearms. More likely than not, the gun used by the person who mercilessly shot the brother of Central Bank Governor Say Tetangco and two companions is unlicensed. Obviously, criminals will not bother to register their guns.

People who oppose a total gun ban like Pro-Gun or Peaceful Responsible Owners of Guns say “there have been no cases anywhere in the world where a ban has effectively prevented criminals from obtaining weapons.” They cite the example of Jamaica which, after an initial drop in gun-related crimes, has become one of the most violent places after the government imposed a total ban on private firearms ownership.

Clearly, a distinction should be made between responsible gun owners from the likes of “road rage” shooter Jason Ivler who, during a shootout with the police, looked like Rambo with a bandolier loaded with rifle clips wrapped around his body and was armed with an unlicensed 45-caliber Kimber pistol and a baby Armalite. Ivler even had armor piercing bullets and gun silencers which are restricted items and not readily available in gun stores. How and where did Ivler get such items?

Many people were happy to hear that Senator Noynoy Aquino—soon to be called President Benigno Aquino III or PBA III—does not agree with a total gun ban since this will only benefit criminals who obviously will not follow the law. What the Philippine National Police should do instead is to strictly enforce laws regarding gun ownership and require individuals to attend seminars before they are issued licenses and permits to carry.

According to 2009 data, there are more than one million unregistered firearms in the country, with 80 percent concentrated in conflict-affected areas like Basilan, Jolo and Tawi-Tawi. The PNP says government is losing millions of dollars in taxes and other fees from the illegal gun trade. Another big headache is theft from government armories—which reminds us, have the police and the military determined from which government armory the Ampatuans got their stockpile of high-powered firearms?

The PNP should look at the example of New York City—touted as the “safest big city” in the United States based on Federal Bureau of Investigation preliminary statistics. For the last 15 years, the crime rate in New York City has been consistently on the decline—a no mean feat for a city that was associated with organized crime in the early 1900s and the so-called “crack epidemic” in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Criminologists attributed the dramatic drop in the crime rate to aggressive police tactics started during the time of Rudy Giuliani (mayor from 1994-2001) which included the “broken windows” approach where police cracked down even on “minor” offenses to show that the NYPD meant business. Critics deplored the approach, saying Giuliani has turned the city into a police state—but supporters welcomed the transformation of the once crime-infested metropolis into a relatively safe place where people could walk the streets at night without fear of being mugged. Add to that the installation of an extensive network of closed circuit television cameras or CCTVs to help detect and track down terrorists—an initiative obviously necessitated by 9-11.

Giuliani also enforced gun control by passing on new legislation that regulated the sale and possession of handguns. The city also established a “gun offender” registry to prevent the purchase of firearms by individuals with gun-related crime records. Certainly, police visibility helped in curbing the crime rate, with the NYPD being the largest police department in the US with 34,500 officers. New York City’s population is estimated at 8.3 million, which means there is one policeman for every 240 citizens—definitely higher than the standard ratio of 1:500.

Unfortunately, the Philippines only has 125,000 policemen for the country’s 94 million population—which means there is only one policeman assigned for every 752 people. That is, if the composition of the entire police force is equally distributed according to an area’s population size. PNP chief Jesus Verzosa says we need 80,000 policemen to meet the 1:500 ratio, and they must recruit 10,000 policemen every year within a 10-year period—by which time the population would have also increased.

PNP’s average recruitment has only been 3,000 per year, compounded by the fact that 51,000 cops or almost half of the entire police force have no handguns. But how can the PNP buy guns when they can’t even afford to pay policemen decent salaries? Is it any wonder why only a few are interested in a high-risk, low paying job where more likely than not, you will fight armed criminals with only a police stick or “batuta”?

With the population growing at a faster rate than the economy, poverty will continue to take place and criminality will obviously rise. Until such time as the police are able to muster enough men to sufficiently protect the people, law abiding citizens would rather be caught with unlicensed firearms than be caught helpless in protecting themselves and their family against criminals.