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Monday, February 09, 2004
Rama: Laying off the whipping boy
By KARLON N. RAMA
STAGE FIVE
AMONG the most durable and cost-efficient handguns I’ve come across with is the China-made Norinco NZ-75, a short-recoil operated semi-automatic pistol chambered in 9mm.
A clone of the Czechoslovakian CZ-75, the gun is fun to shoot and is functionally reliable despite the maker’s technological limitation, manifested by the gun’s rather rough and crude finish.
Shooting instructor Adrian Gregory Tadena swears that he’s never seen one break down and gunsmith Mario Abangan attests to the durability of its material by charging extra for polishing and dehorning jobs. He says the metal on the thing is so damned hard that it blunts his dremel rotary tools and files.
I spent some time testing the firearm at the Gold Cup Indoor Range in Mandaue onetime and had lots of fun. I recommended the gun to a lawyer-friend who was looking for an affordable home defense firearm. I haven’t heard him complain about it even until now.
Norinco, short for the China Northern Industries Corp., also makes other types of firearms, among them a .45 cal. 1911A1 pistol. The City Government bought 30 units of the 1911A1 pistols sometime last year and gave them to some members of the Cebu City Police Office as part of its upgrading program. A second batch of orders is said to be on the way.
City Councilor Jack Jakosalem, who sits in the committee that secured the firearms for City Hall, is said to be unhappy with the guns that he is recommending that the city no longer make additional purchase, favoring instead the Manila-produced Armscor 1911A1 pistols.
Jakosalem, quoted by a news report, said he finds the Armscor (Arms Corp. of the Philippines) guns better in quality than the China-made Norinco pistols.
On the issue of durability and reliability alone, I’d go for the Norinco anytime. As far as affordability is concerned, they’re at about at par. Some might think we should go for local brands, but when it comes to firearms, especially those used in police service, reliability should come before our touted patriotic duty to buy Philippine-made products.
Jakosalem was quoted as admitting that the recent incident involving that policeman, SPO4 Jose Gesto of the Carbon Police Station, who accidentally shot himself in the leg while on his way to target practice, influenced his decision.
I’m sure Councilor Jakosalem was just upset over the incident because, being a shooter himself, he knows that the gun had nothing to do with that accident. Even if City Hall does junk the Norinco units and go for the Armscor handguns, the innards of the two firearms would be about the same because both are clones of the Colt M1911A1 of John Moses Browning.
Police officers, therefore, should start taking their gun safety lessons very seriously. That way, they’d be safe gun handlers regardless of the weapon.
I know they get regular proficiency training through the volunteer instructors of the Cebu Pistol and Rifle Association (CPRA) but even they should pay heed to that innocuous billboard outside my gate in Banawa on what should come first.
DOWN RANGE. Yesterday’s scheduled match at the Kamagong Gun Club Firing Range in Lahug didn’t push through because some gun clubs have yet to receive their gun-ban exemptions from the Commission on Election and the Firearms Explosives Division in Manila.
I spoke to Maj. Vir Cong of Kamagong Gun Club Saturday night and he too was a bit browbeaten at the cancellation of the match.
A lot of shooters are looking forward to the resumption of the matches, especially with the shotgun and rifle competitions that are becoming more popular in a growing sector of the local shooting community.
I once hung around the same guys who are very much into these friendly matches now and I can very well understand their enthusiasm for it. It’s bitten me too.
(stagefive@teamemc.org)
(February 9, 2004 issue)
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