Sadly, another cause for debate on gun ownership

Not in the Philippines. This was the statement from the head of the PNP Firearms and Explosives Office (FEO), referring to the bloody shooting of 20 seven-year-old kids by a 20-year-old man, using a high powered rifle, aside from being armed with several other handguns! This deranged man, as there is no other way to describe someone who repeatedly shoots young children in their school, apparently first kills his own mother, then proceeded to the school where he conducted his intentional carnage. This was not someone running amuck and firing indiscriminately until his bullets ran out. This was someone armed to the teeth with hundreds of rounds with him! The coroner stated that upon examining the young victims, they had been shot at least 11 times each! My God!

He apparently shot himself, denying law enforcement to do that to him. In the aftermath, three more guns were found in the area, implying that he was ready for a siege in case it did happen. Or did he have accomplices? As the city, the state, the country and the world reel in shock over the bloodbath, the questions are now coming in. Why did he do it? But according to Chief Supt. Raul Petrasanta, Filipinos are a happy people, religious and “have so many diversions to help them forget their problems”. And while that statement is not entirely false, neither is it entirely true.

We may not have the kind of shootings the US commonly has, where an individual or two would just open fire on a crowd or group of people, we do have a lot of gun-related crimes. From the petty like traffic altercations or bar fights, to the more serious crime of murder and homicide. In fact, if the PNP would have their way, they would be a lot stricter in the purchase of firearms by civilians, such as requiring licenses for both the gun owner and the gun itself, undergo a neuropsychiatric exam aside from proof of residence to track each individual. All well and good, but honestly, that part of the neuropsychiatric exam is total bull. But just like in the US, I sincerely doubt that any kind of crime would cause the ban on the sale of guns to civilians, unless the government puts its foot down.

The debate will once more be stoked by this most recent bloody incident. Just how many guns and ammunition should a civilian have? Is it the right of every one to be carrying a firearm outside his residence? And how on earthy did this Adam Lanza get a hold of his parents’ firearms and ammunition?

Perhaps the only person who may have the answers was the first one killed, his own mother, as I’m sure the world wants to know what triggered such an act of carnage, intentional carnage! So, do we all start arming, or disarming ourselves?