MANILA (UCAN): The Students’ Alliance for Christ, a group mainly composed of university students in Manila, the Philippines, called for Rodrigo Duterte, the country’s president, to veto a bill aimed at relaxing gun laws. The alliance said the move to extend the validity period from two to five years, to 10 years for all types of firearms licenses is an open invitation for an increase in gun crime.
“A longer validity period means its more likely that firearms may be used in crimes,” the alliance’s chairperson, Jose Francisco de Guia, said on February 3.
De Guia said that because the monitoring of such weapons by the authorities will be very lax, extending gun licenses would encourage some gun owners to engage in illegal activities.
“The present law requires gun owners to renew their license after two years. This means gun owners must face checks such as drug tests every two years. If they fail then their guns are confiscated. Extending licenses makes the rules less stringent, thereby increasing danger for the public,” he explained.
Father Joem Afable of the Diocese of Sorsogon said the relaxation of gun laws could encourage young people to buy guns even though they do not need them.
“What’s really the necessity of owning a gun but to promote violence? We have more than enough laws on gun management. Why do we need another one which relaxes the present laws that we have?” he asked.
The bill’s sponsor, Juan Miguel Zubiri, insisted that it would allow authorities greater scope to track down and eliminate illegal firearms.
“We are extending the validity of licenses to encourage more responsible gun ownership. The easier we make the registration and renewal process, the easier it will be to account for every firearm carried in the country,” Zubiri claimed without elaborating on how this would be achieved.
However, The Students’ Alliance for Christ said that the reasoning behind the bill was questionable as present gun laws were not properly enforced.
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“We do not need such changes. The present law is enough. What we need is the will to implement present laws,” De Guia pointed out.
More than 1.7 million firearms are registered in the Philippines. More than 10,000 others are estimated to be unregistered or their licenses have expired.
