Dear Sirs Alan Purisima and Mar Roxas,
We understand that you are trying to rigorously capture criminal elements and lessen the cases related to robbery, and homicide. We also see your effort in trying to understand how these elements operate and continuously seek ways to keep the majority safe and at peace.
..However, we, the legitimate gun owners, are the ones penalized by the rules you are enforcing. I'd like to remind you some of the reasons why we.. I, personally bought a gun.
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I'm a lady not of a strong structure. I am also shorter than the average Pinay. I wanted the gun for my protection because I'm a commuter.
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I want to be able to defend my home when an intruder might attempt to ransack my place and take advantage of the people I live with. In effect, thereby also protecting the investments I have painstakingly worked so hard to put together for an easier lifestyle.
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I want to be able to use the gun for training and competition so that I may reinforce the camaraderie amongst us legitimate gun owners and also to harness the skill to shoot, thereby gaining friends and confidence for myself.
Now, at this point, you wanted to make it a privilege for us legitimate gun owners to carry our guns outside of our home, with the reason that if there is no 'death threat' to us, then we do not need to carry it outside. Protection and safety is a right sirs; not a privilege.
It might be easier for me to take this willful policy change if you would have come out clean that you wanted to earn a bit more from us legitimate gun owners. I would've shrugged shoulders and pay the government extra. What I cannot take is the fact that you make it look like it is for the benefit of the masses.
Have you considered the figures that led you to this decision? Were most of the criminal cases caused by legitimate gun owners? What accounting has been done to communicate the figures on criminal cases done by illegal gun users?
I am "no one" in the eyes of politics nor in the lime light of celebrity world. Would you care if I was robbed in a jeepney, stripped off of my properties because I was not able to defend myself? Whereas if I had a permit to carry my gun, I could have saved others and myself from being mere victims in such a case? Have you not thought that by restricting the issuance of a permit to carry guns of legal gun owners outside of their houses would make criminals feel they have 100% chance of getting what they want and getting away with it?
If there would have been greater visibility of police forces in all commute areas, I would feel safer. Until then, please make sense of this policy change, because you are hurting the masses more than you think you could protect them.
For me, this doesn't make sense. I know I am not alone in this.
Gun ownership and safety in the Philippines.. they make it a privilege, not a right.
Author
