WE HAVE a gun control problem. Yes, gun-toting assassins appear to be everywhere, be they riding-in-tandem on in cars. The fatal shooting of two men just minutes apart on Jan. 19 in Jaro and La Paz districts in Iloilo City bring home this point.
We can cite more incidents that happened through the years in many parts of the country. Remember Dr. Dreyfuss Perlas of the Doctors to the Barrios program? This young Aklanon physician – the municipal health officer of Sapad, Lanao del Norte – died on March 1, 2017. He was shot dead after he had just come from a medical mission in Kapatagan, Lanao del Norte.
On the streets and in homes in Metro Manila and other densely-populated areas, we have near-daily occurrence of fatal shooting incidents involving neighbors and suspected drug dealers and runners.
Every now and then, some men go amok shooting to death their relatives and neighbors or taking innocents hostage. For example, a man died while four others were injured in separate shootings in Negros Occidental on Good Friday and Black Saturday in 2018. How were the shooters able to acquire their guns? Were they even licensed?
Especially in the provinces, thousands of loose firearms are in the hands of private armies, bandits and rebels.
It’s worse during local elections in many hotspots; incidents tend to be bloody, deadly, and often involving unlicensed firearms. Remember the election eve ambush in Balasan, Iloilo in 2016 that killed two supporters of a mayoral candidate?
We can cite more examples. To say that the situation is alarming is an understatement. What’s the government doing about this?
What is clear, though, is that we lack stricter gun control laws and enforcement. Guns seem to be proliferating like shabu, accessible to anyone.
