Saturday, November 11, 2006 Editorials: Gun ban during the summit
IT'S not that gun bans have not been used by law enforcers before as one of the instruments of peacekeeping, especially during major events.
One is therefore surprised at the vehemence with which Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña criticized the proposal of Police Regional Office 7 Chief Silverio Alarcio for a two-week gun ban when Cebu hosts the Asean summit in December.
More so because this is the same mayor that wants to make Metro Cebu a ghost place for the duration of the summit, painted scenarios about terrorists descending here during the gathering and voiced other controversial suggestions.
Apparently, the mayor believes that the only good proposals on how to keep the peace during the summit emanate from him and that ideas coming from people trained in security matters, like Alarcio, are crap.
Dumb idea
He described the gun ban proposal as dumb because, for him, it will result in licensed firearms holders being deprived of the right to carry guns while not providing assurance that criminals will be deterred from bringing their weapons.
If that argument is not the one that is dumb then it is rather simplistic.
And it misses the goal of the gun ban badly.
Not the Wild West
The mayor's reasoning presupposes that having "law-abiding people" carry guns during the summit can prevent criminals from doing their thing or at the very least allows them to defend themselves when attacked.
While that has some sense in it, the point is that in a civilized setup and because of improvements in law enforcement, the need to carry guns everywhere for protection has lessened, unless one thinks he is in the old Wild West.
The reason why Metro Cebu is being flooded with hundreds of police and military personnel is precisely to provide the deterrence, thereby making the idea of licensed firearms holders carrying weapons for protection during the summit superfluous.
Security net
On the other hand, a gun ban simplifies the law enforcement effort.
While there is no assurance that everybody, including criminals, will abide by it, a gun ban will not make life easier for anybody with intention to spark mayhem using firearms during the summit.
The goal of the gun ban is to strengthen the security net in place for the gathering.
