Why not train bona fide newscasters and news reporters how to use firearms for self-defense? Train them to be sharpshooters, train them enough so that they can shoot with precision and hit their would-be assassin without wasting a single bullet.
You see, if a paid assassin is aware that his target is likewise armed and has the ability to fire back, he would think twice about carrying out his evil design. Hitmen do get butterflies, too. They don’t want to die, and they’re afraid of their targets beating them to the draw.
A gunless society is an ideal environment—if the criminals are gunless. In a gunless society, law-abiding citizens are penalized— left at the mercy of criminals who have no qualms about killing people. A gunless society makes everyone, except criminals, defenseless. A gunless society exposes decent citizens to harm’s way.
Let me close this letter with a reminder for those who have chosen or would pursue journalism as a career: The threat of “death” by evil hands comes with the territory. Let us grieve—and mourn we must— for our colleagues who died from the bullets of assassins; but let us keep our heads high and not allow ourselves to be cowed by death. Let us forge on and serve our profession faithfully and bravely.
—BOB GABUNA, kapihan@hotmail.com