Carvajal: Gun stupid

A TOTAL gun ban might be imposed on either one of two conditions.

One, those allowed to carry guns like the authorities should agree to look for suspects in case of a shooting death or wounding only from among themselves. Since a total gun ban is enforced on everybody else, the presumption is only the authorities have guns and must, therefore, have done the shooting.

They’ll disagree, of course, and call it preposterous. Yet, it is not nearly as preposterous as the plan to impose a total gun ban.

The reason given that the partial gun ban was successful is without basis. Many people were caught defying the ban and these people were not responsible gun-owners but underworld denizens that have no respect for the law.

What the police succeeded at was getting law-abiding citizens not to carry guns. Which means a total gun ban would effectively disarm all law-abiding citizens, from the shooting enthusiast to the self-defense stickler, while criminal elements, not excluding rouge policemen and their assets, would be armed.

Surely, Gen. Jesus Versoza cannot be too naïve to think criminals will respect the ban. If authorities have not been able to disarm private armies and underworld crime syndicates which account for much of the violence in this country, how can a total gun ban accomplish anything more than make law-abiding citizens totally defenseless in the face of official incompetence?

Two, the alternative condition is that the ban should be literally total and nobody without exception, not even those in authority, should be allowed to carry a gun. Preposterous? Yes, but if the good general is confident enough to presume everybody including criminal elements will observe the law then authorities should have no need for guns themselves.

The suggestion that a total gun ban will solve the high crime rate is simply inane. The high crime rate is not due to law-abiding citizens carrying guns for sports or for self-defense or on occasion to commit crimes of passion. Rather, it is to a great extent, due to the inability of the authorities to disarm the purveyors of wholesale crime, namely warlords, drug lords, etc.

Insinuations are even rife in the streets that some members of the police force are involved in crime syndicates. If true, a gun-less citizenry would be at the mercy of criminals in and out of uniform. I suggest that Gen. Versoza work instead towards improving the performance and image of the police in fighting crime.

No decent citizen wants the proliferation of guns. Nobody wants a high crime rate either. But a total gun ban is not the way to do it. Authorities have to be smarter than that in addition to being more competent and, consequently, more credible.

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