Rama: A taboo

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

JOURNALISM gives me the opportunity to travel. This is well and good because I find traveling fun.

So to travel to somewhere that has a gun range and then get to shoot there with friends who love shooting as much as I do, that’s double the fun.

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And fun heaped twice over was exactly what I got in Bacolod City last Friday when, several hours before it was my turn to speak in a national gathering of La Salle journalism students, local broadcaster Julius Mariveles whisked me away to what he now says is his favorite haunt—the Central Negros Shooting Association range.

The range is in one corner of the Sta. Fe Resort and Convention Center, merely a few minutes away by car from the Bacolod-Silay Airport.

It’s a popular range, I’m told.

Going there can be a family affair because the kids get to swim in the pool or drop by the mini-zoo while mommy visits the spa, giving daddy some quiet time to engage in what he loves to do best.

And though it did not have too many bays, each one was wide and ample enough for most course designs.

Moreover, it has its own reloading facility. Members can leave their empty cartridges and these get refilled according to their specification.

Shooting a newly acquired 1911—he said it was his first firearm ever—Julius blasted at paper targets and steel plates in the presence of a club-employed safety officer.

There were wayward shots and Julius admitted that he hadn’t had official marksmanship training. He said he simply downloaded a shooting video and tried his best to keep up with the instruction.

Over dinner at his house after our shooting and my talk with the La Salle students, I told Julius that I admired his initiative to get instruction. I told him that there are some people who are simply content with buying a gun and not bother learning how to use it.

I also told him of encounters I had with an arrogant few who simply reject being taught, believing or making others believe perhaps that they were born into this world with firearms acuity.

We shared the same lament, the absence of official or state-sponsored mechanisms from where new licensed firearm owners could get sound instruction.

In a lot of ways, firearms remain a taboo subject. It’s like some person in authority has told us that yes, private gun ownership is allowed but let’s not talk much about that, lest we encourage more people towards it.

It’s quite sad, actually. By limiting discussions, we limit access to much needed information, information that can someday spell the difference between life and death or, at the very least, a safe shot and a negligent one.

It’s sad and stupid.

A lot of Filipino shooters and shooting organizations have earned high praise elsewhere. Few such shooters and groups are known here because what they do is still somehow part of that taboo. Their feat isn’t considered part of polite dinner conversations.

One such group is IDPA Philippines.

During the IDPA World Championship in Florida last September, a course that they designed was adopted as Stage 12 and was said to be one of the most engaging and challenging components of the multi-stage match.

The stage briefing goes: you are entering your hotel suite when you realize that it has already been invaded by a gang of thugs and you are the only one who can save members of your party already taken hostage.

It challenged shooters by making them move into and from corners while engaging targets that just about spring to life from shadows.

I have yet to see banners celebrating the accolade earned by their design.

Gun writer Massad Ayoob, one of the most respected firearms instructors since Jeff Cooper, featured their stage design in the 2012th edition of his “The Complete Book of Handguns” series. He said the design imparted a valuable lesson.

“The good Filipinos are very much an armed society and there is sound reason for that.

The lesson is that sometimes it’s impossible to call the authorities… it’s up to the victims to escape… and armed, skilled victims have a much better chance of doing so.”

(knrama@gmail.com)