Guns and criminals

President Aquino is said to be “alarmed” over the number of killings of prominent personalities—a hotel chain owner, a race car driver, some mayors and political figures—in recent days.

Among them were hotel chain owner Richard King and racer Enzo Pastor, who was driving a trailer bearing a race car when he was shot by a gunman aboard a motorcycle, riding tandem.

Still, despite this public airing of the President’s concern, the police establishment seems to be merely shrugging off this expression of alarm. “It’s still manageable but it’s a cause of study,” said the PNP spokesperson. Take note, a cause of study, not even of concern.

So far, the only concrete step that law enforcement agencies seem inclined to take is to “revisit our operational procedures” and change their “system” in the areas where the killings have taken place. That seems a recipe for inertia, if you ask me.

But there is one step the police, perhaps through the Department of the Interior and Local Government which has direct command over it, can take to address the alarming increase in killings, including the escalating number of politically-related attacks given the approaching elections.

And that step is to get behind the long-pending legislation that would place strictures on the sale, licensing, carrying and use of guns. To ease the way toward its passage, more than a decade after the first bills were filed.

Of course, no one is talking currently or with any sense of urgency about the need to curb gun ownership in this country. Indeed, gun owners and sellers are even growing more and more aggressive in their positioning. When PNP Director General Alan Purisima sought to centralize the registration and licensing of firearms, for instance, gun owners, club members and sellers raised a howl. Their mouthpieces claimed such a move, which entailed longer waiting times for prospective gun owners, placed them at jeopardy and constituted an unjust inconvenience.

Although one must wonder what is so urgent about getting a gun license, when the trend elsewhere is to impose longer waiting times for licenses pending a more thorough evaluation of the applicant’s fitness to bear arms.

* * *

In the view of Nandy Pacheco, who initiated the “Gunless Society” movement that, against all odds many years ago, managed to convince legislators to file bills calling for more stringent controls on gun licensing, “guns are at the root of the problem.”

The early “gunless” bills—which would have imposed controls on gun licensing and outlawed the carrying of a loaded gun in public places by civilians—were filed during the “first” Aquino administration, but in the intervening years, the bills have met with one obstacle after another.

During this “second” Aquino presidency, the biggest obstacle seems to be the President himself, who is an avowed gun enthusiast. But if P-Noy would only bother to read the latest versions of the gunless society bills, he would find that law-abiding citizens and gun lovers like him could very well transport their weapons to firing ranges provided these were licensed and were not loaded. God forbid, for instance, a hot-headed licensed gun owner using his weapon during a traffic altercation. Which has happened more than once, by the way.

Or as Pacheco puts it: “Gun control in public places simply means making the harmless act of carrying a gun in public a criminal offense before such a harmless act turns… violent. This is crime prevention. An ounce of prevention is (worth) more than a pound of cure.”

Now that the President has expressed “alarm” over the random assassinations and shootings that have made it to our headlines and TV news shows, is he ready to think again about the wisdom of a gunless society?

* * *

Pacheco, who looks a most youthful 81 years old, even if he’s been constrained in the meanwhile to walk around with a cane, is not about to wait, sitting on his hands, while gun violence continues to take its toll on human life and civility.

Typical of him (he also helped found the unusual political party Kapatiran that takes a moral stance on political issues), Pacheco has come up with a “big idea.” This year, he notes, has been declared by the Vatican as the “Year of the Laity.” Seven years from now, in 2021, the Philippines will celebrate the 500th Anniversary of Christianity on our shores.

The years between now and 2021 (and beyond) he believes, should be devoted to pursuing a grand vision. And that vision is for the Filipino people “to accept and live Christ’s peace not as the world gives but through truth, justice, forgiveness, reconciliation and nonviolence.”

Such a vision is contained in three images that Pacheco believes sum up what should be the concerned Catholic’s focus in the coming years: the Risen Christ, a dove of peace, and a handgun with its nozzle tied into a knot, rendering it useless.

Pacheco is organizing a group, a “lay-initiated apostolate” that he dubs the “Movers of Christ’s Peace (MCP).”

“It will have no structure, no officers, no central directorate,” Pacheco shares. “But we invite all concerned Filipinos to work on creating peace not just in our streets and public lives, but in our workplaces, our homes and in ourselves.”

Certainly, we must petition the responsible persons, beginning with the police, the entire law enforcement community, our local and national officials, to take faster, more decisive action against the criminals, the killers-for-hire, the violent and shameless in our midst. But “Christ’s peace,” says Pacheco, must also be pursued by ordinary men, women and children, beginning with our persons, our families, our communities and ultimately, the entire nation.