Eased policy on civilian gun ownership triggers concerns

WEAPONS OF CHOICE | A gun enthusiast checks out the various types of firearms on display at a weapons trade exhibition organized by Armscor Global Defense Inc. at SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City in this photo taken on June 23, 2023. (File photo by NIÑO JESUS ORBETA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — Gun-control advocates and some senators have expressed concerns over the policy change announced earlier this week by the Philippine National Police, allowing civilians to own semi-automatic rifles.

The Gunless Society of the Philippines (GSP), a group founded in the early 1990s, called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to suspend the revised implementing rules and regulations of the 2013 law that eased the restrictions on who could own such firearms.

One senator raised a scenario of one’s next-door neighbor suddenly “owning a submachine gun.” Another warned of buyers being capable of hoarding such weapons in the guise of being hobbyists, while a third said the PNP would be asked to explain the change before the Senate—and to reveal any “lobbying” done on behalf of gun manufacturers and importers.

Under the new IRR of the Comprehensive Law on Firearms and Ammunition Regulation or Republic Act (RA) No. 10591, civilians may now own semi-automatic rifles or those of a caliber not exceeding 7.62mm. Separate licenses are needed for the gun owner to transport the firearm or carry it outdoors.

Announcing the “minor amendments” on Monday, the PNP said they were proposed by a technical working group it created and were submitted to the University of the Philippines Law Center on Feb. 27 for publication, after which the revision would take effect after 15 days.

‘Infinite number’

For GSP president Norman Cabrera, it could impact the peace and order situation and run counter to the prevailing policies of the country’s Asian neighbors.

“Majority of heinous crimes are committed with the use of firearms, which gun advocates argue do not often involve theirs that are licensed. While they point their finger [at] illegal firearms, these are the natural offshoot of the State’s policy where arms end up among criminal syndicates (big- and small-time alike), the New People’s Army, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front renegade groups, and the Abu Sayyaf group,” Cabrera said in an open letter to the President.

Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong, he said, “have achieved peace by controlling guns in their society. If they can survive and prosper without putting guns into the hands of their citizens, why can’t we?”

“No society can prosper in an environment where public safety is in question. No business can prosper to its fullest, and not many investors will be attracted to come to the country under our conditions,” Cabrera added. “So, please, suspend the implementation of the subject PNP IRR.”

The group described RA 10591, which was passed during the Aquino III presidency, as “a gun proliferation law where gun ownership becomes a right, not a mere privilege; where enthusiasts and collectors may own up to an infinite number of weapons…. and where commercial manufacture, trading and distribution of firearms are the norm.”

Civilians were originally allowed to own semi-automatic rifles under RA 10591, but Aquino’s successor, then President Rodrigo Duterte, called for tighter restrictions on the ownership of high-powered firearms among civilians following the bloody Marawi City siege in 2017.

Dealer’s assurance

One of the first to assure the public of ample safety nets under the new IRR was the president of the Association of Firearms and Ammunition Dealers of the Philippines.

“Buying a gun is not as if you’re going to the market and you can get it right away. It goes through a lengthy processing,” Joy Gutierrez said in an Inquirer interview.

The Philippines, she noted, has stricter gun purchase and ownership rules compared to the United States.

Citing self-defense and family protection as the main reasons for owning a gun, Gutierrez added: “I hope I will never have to use a gun that way, but if I have to, I should be able to protect myself.”

Police Col. Jean Fajardo, the acting PNP public affairs chief, said safeguards were in place to address concerns over the revision.

“There are enough safeguards that have been put in place so that not just anyone will be able to have this privilege to possess and own small arms,” she said on dzBB on Tuesday.

Not conducive

But like the GSP, Sen. Francis Tolentino said that IRR implementation should be deferred and “studied again.”

“[Promoting] a culture of gun [ownership], especially involving long firearms, will not be conducive to any stable economic [condition] that we are aspiring for right now,” he said in a press conference.

Tolentino acknowledged that RA 10591 authorized civilians to possess “Class A light weapons,” including submachine guns, M14 rifles and other semi-automatic long firearms.

READ: Civilians may soon buy semi-automatic rifles

But this might only worsen the incidence of road rage and other crimes in the country, he warned. “Gun owners may argue that the law allowed them to keep those weapons. But if you look at the greater societal concern, will you allow your neighbor to have a submachine gun?”

Enabling ‘hoarding’

Senators Risa Hontiveros and Imee Marcos said the law itself should be amended.

“Hoarding high-powered weapons should not be a hobby, much less one enabled by law. Our society, families, and schools will be safer if we reduce the guns that may be used to kill and commit other crimes,” Hontiveros said.

Instead of easing ownership restrictions, there should be “stronger regulations’’ and the law’s “broken provisions” must be addressed, she said.

Marcos said she had filed a resolution looking into the PNP’s decision to amend the gun policy.

“Do we want a proliferation of shooting violence like in the US?” the senator, the eldest sibling of President Marcos, asked. “Who is lobbying for firearms manufacturing and importation?”