Time to consider
a total gun ban

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Moves to pass a law that would impose a total gun ban in this country have been revived with the alarming rate of murders and assassinations being perpetrated by gunwielding criminals recently. A member of the House of Representatives has disclosed that an average of three such killings take place every week in the Philippines and there are fears that this may escalate further when the election season nears.

Hardly a day passes by now that we do not hear or read a report about an official, a journalist, a suspected leftist, an activist, even lawyers and prosecutors, being gunned down. The murders take place obviously with impunity, because arrests are few and far between, and even when they are made, the suspects are most often released shortly after because no airtight evidence can be established against them.

The congressman who gave the statistics on the killings has proposed an even more drastic deterrent: the revival of the death penalty that was revoked only a few years ago. Indeed, there is some logic in his proposal, because the killings had not been quite so rampant in the days when the death penalty was still part of the punitive measures against heinous crimes.

Considering, however, the emotionalism that is expected to go into any serious move to revive the imposition of the capital punishment, the revival of the gun ban should be the next best thing. A ban may not totally eliminate the possibilities of murders and assassinations happening, but the fact that mere possession of a firearm would subject one to the processes of the law should somehow deter their free and open ownership and use.

One of the things that might have worsened the situation is the fact that so many exemptions have been made for the possession of firearms. Strictly limiting their issuance only to policemen, soldiers and agents of the law could reduce the incidents of lawlessness, particularly involving the precious lives of human beings who deserve the full protection of their country's laws.*