PNP urged to intensify campaign on gun safety

MANILA, Philippines - A lawmaker yesterday urged the Philippine National Police to heighten its information drive on gun safety as he expressed alarm over the growing number of accidental shooting incidents involving children.

“Children should be constantly reminded and educated that guns are not toys. They should not be touching these guns wherever these are located or seen. They should not think that these are mere playthings,” Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano said.

On the part of parents and other adults, Albano said they should be more aware of the activities of their children and should keep their guns locked in vaults or steel cabinets.

“It is their responsibility to supervise or closely monitor their children’s activities. Some of the accidental shootings happened while parents were not at home while in some cases, the parents were at home but were preoccupied with something else, thus were unaware that their kids had started playing with the guns,” he added.

Albano, a former regional trial court judge, pointed out that negligent parents could be held liable under Republic Act 7610 or the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act.

The lawmaker made the statement following an incident wherein a seven-year-old boy accidentally killed his four-year-old brother while playing with a caliber .45 pistol in Barangay Bantigue, Bantayan town in Cebu.

Both kids were playing an online shooting game when the older brother found the pistol in the cabinet and started playing with it.

In an earlier incident, an eight-year-old boy was injured after a caliber .22 revolver he found and played with went off last Sunday in Barangay Tonggo, San Fernando town, also in Cebu.

The boy shot himself in the right leg after he pulled the trigger of the revolver, which he mistook for a toy gun. He was reportedly in their house with his parents when the incident happened. His parents denied owning the gun.