We say "no" to the planned gun ban extention!

For the record, it’s a week short of one month since the May 10 elections. Today, we still do not know who won the Vice-Presidential race. You have to be complete fools to believe and insist that the PCOS as presented in Manila before the media by Smartmatic is foolproof because if so, we’d already know by now who is the next Vice-President of this country! In the past, the Comelec was considered one of the most corrupt government agencies, so please don’t tell me that those little devils have suddenly turned into holy angels just because of Smartmatic? No way, Jose! You can tell that yarn to the Marines!

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The Philippine National Police (PNP) is apparently planning to extend the election gun ban which they say resulted in fewer election related violence and deaths. Then there’s Mr. Nandy Pacheco of the Gunless Society who supports this idea. But I dare say that for as long as there are armed groups roaming our streets with impunity, for as long as criminals brazenly continue their nefarious trade oblivious to the gun ban imposed by the PNP, I will never support this idea, simply because there are not enough PNP officers who can protect the citizenry when trouble comes right on our doorstep.

Even worse is the reality that we live in today’s times where men in power often abuse their power against the powerless. This is why there is that society’s menace called drug abuse because there are just too many policemen who are somehow involved with drug syndicates that it could never prosper without the help of these corrupt police officers. Just ask yourself, why has prostitution flourished in Metro Cebu despite the reality that our PNP knows exactly where the prostitution dens are located in this town? Take any taxicab and tell the driver to bring you to the nearest prostitution den and he’d drive you there right away.

There is no question that these prostitution dens are being “protected” by unscrupulous PNP personnel; otherwise they would have gone into a serious crackdown a long time ago. I dare any PNP officer to drive along Pelaez St. corner P. del Rosario St. or along D. Jakosalem St. around 8pm and you’ll be greeted by pimps who brazenly knock on your car window soliciting or selling you a used virgin! What I’m telling you is, the PNP isn’t ready for a gunless society. Until and unless they can crack down on all forms of criminality, big or small and it takes a lot of character before they can achieve this.

Want more? If and when the PNP imposes a Gunless Society, I’ll bet you that there will be people who will be exempted from this gun ban. When that happens, you will see someone from the PNP making globs and globs of money giving out permits to people who will pay good money to get that exemption. This reminds me of the time when we had an ANCAR (Anti-Carnapping) permit. At the end of the day, it really didn’t stop unscrupulous car dealers from shipping smuggled cars from region to region thanks to a deal they struck with unscrupulous PNP officers.

The Right to Bear Arms is a time-honored provision in the US Constitution (which we patterned our constitution from) as written by James Madison who pointed out that if the citizenry is armed, the Federal Government would not be able to tyrannize the people. Alexander Hamilton also said, “If circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow citizens.”

While anti-gun critics may say that the case in the US is different from ours, then let me remind them that way back when the Japanese invaded the Philippines in 1941, if the Filipino people only had arms, the Japanese wouldn’t have easily walked into Manila (which was declared an Open City) to capture it. It was easy picking for the Japanese Imperial Army because the ordinary Filipino didn’t posses arms in those days.

Just another reminder to anti-gun people like Nandy Pacheco: Switzerland is one of the most peaceful countries on this earth, which has an almost zero crime rate. The reason for this is not because no one has any firearms. On the contrary, every able-bodied citizen is allowed to own and carry their firearms and shooting is a national sport for the family to enjoy. Every able bodied Swiss is allowed a submachine gun in his home and he must use it for practice shooting once a year. Hence the crime rate is lower because any person with a criminal intent knows that if he enters someone’s home, he may just be greeted by a volley from a submachine gun.

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