Dentists raise funds for gun safety training program

Consider them armed to the teeth.

An organization of dentists yesterday held a shooting competition to raise funds for the conduct of a training program on the proper handling of firearms.

Philippine Dental Association (PDA) president Arturo de Leon told the Inquirer that at least 50 dentists, most of them women, participated in the shoot fest held at the Camp Karingal firing range in Sikatuna Village,

Quezon City.

De Leon said that learning about practical shooting and arming dentists were options that would give them a “fighting chance” against robbers who tend to take advantage of their “vulnerability.”

He stressed that in robberies, dentists and their staff are often subjected to physical and sexual assaults. “Most of us are running private clinics. We have lady dentists manning these private offices who are easily overpowered by suspects,” he told the Inquirer.

“In these instances, privacy is the enemy of security,” he added.

While Albert Galang dela Cruz—the man behind several cases of robbery and sexual assault involving women dentists in Metro Manila last year—had been arrested and convicted for one of his crimes, the PDA president told the Inquirer that there was a possibility that  “copycats” or persons who would attempt to duplicate his modus operandi could surface.

“We are trained to serve and to be kind to people but we cannot allow ourselves to be victims,” De Leon said as he pushed for enactment of laws imposing stiffer penalties on criminals victimizing health professionals, including dentists.

Funds raised from the shooting competition, he explained, would be used to finance safety and security training programs, particularly on responsible and practical shooting.

“It is for good defense, a fighting chance, not to propagate a culture of violence,” De Leon stressed.

He said that watching footage taken by closed circuit television cameras of previous dental robbery victims showed the doctors freezing at the sight of an armed suspect.

“What these safety and security courses will do is train our dentists to maintain presence of mind in the face of these threats for them to come up with creative countermeasures,” he added.