Airsoft pistol gets driver in trouble over Comelec gun ban

Police in Makati City reportedly confiscated this airsoft replica of a 9-mm pistol from a driver in Barangay South Cembo on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MAKATI POLICE

MANILA, Philippines – Police arrested a driver who yielded a replica of a gun in Makati City in probable violation of the gun ban for the May elections.

The police identified the driver as Randy Aragones, 48, of Barangay South Cembo in Makati.

According to the Makati police, a concerned citizen went to the Police Community Precinct 7 at about 4 a.m., Sunday, and reported that a man was carrying a gun along General Malvar Street in Barangay South Cembo.

Two police cars were immediately dispatched to Malvar Street where the concerned citizen pointed to Aragones as the man toting a firearm.

The lawmen accosted Aragones and reportedly found an airsoft replica of a 9-mm pistol on him.

Airsoft guns are lifelike firearm replicas that shoot non-metallic ball bullets using compressed air.

While technically not a firearm, “airsoft guns, and their replica/imitation in whatever form that can cause an ordinary person to believe that they are real” have been included in the gun ban according to Commission on Elections through Resolution 8714.

Lawmen arrested the suspect and turned him over the Station Investigation Division of the Makati Police Station for investigation. /cbb