PNP guesses there are .6M loose guns

The Philippine National Police (PNP) estimates there are at least 600,000 unlicensed firearms in the country that could potentially be used to commit crimes.

PNP Director General Nicanor Bartolome said they could only guess at the number of loose guns from intelligence reports, “because we cannot really determine the exact number of unlicensed firearms.”

“Most of the firearms that are involved in crimes are loose, they are not the ones registered or licensed. That’s why for every crime that we solve involving firearms, that’s a reduction in the number of loose firearms,” Bartolome told a Manila Overseas Press Club forum Wednesday night.

He, however, maintained his position in favor of letting civilians own duly licensed guns.

“The stand of the PNP is to consider responsible gun ownership. We just have to regulate. But we would rather that some citizens be given this privilege,” Bartolome said, adding that gun ownership was covered by strict regulation.

He disclosed that a third of the 140,000-strong police force did not have government-issued firearms.

This means that about 40,000 policemen had to buy their own handguns.

“Right now 66 percent [have] short firearms. Now you may wonder what the other 34 percent do. They buy their own handguns,” he said.

“Our target is to have all our policemen armed by the end of 2012,” he said.

As for long arms, Bartolome said their target is provide these to 70 percent of policemen. At present only 63 percent have government-issued long firearms.

“Our policy is that not all policemen should be armed with long firearms,” he said.

Not only does the PNP have to contend with a lack of guns for its men, but most of them cannot shoot properly.

Bartolome admitted the PNP was using its own standards to rate the shooting skills of its personnel as it found the international standards “too high.”

“But since then we have started to enhance the skills of our policemen,” he said.