Tuesday, October 10, 2007 Rama: Timeless Nineteen Elevens By Karlon N. Rama Stage Five
THE Nineteen-Eleven is indeed an immortal classic.
Would you believe that a gun store here in Cebu City is selling original pieces made by Colt, Remington Rand and Ithaca?
The pistols, on display at Royal Interarms along Borromeo Arcade, are imported from Vietnam. If Royal Interarms insiders are to be believed, the guns are part of US stockpiles left when the American troops left Saigon in April 30, 1975.
The pistols cost less than P20,000 minus the cost of licensing.
Royal Interarms refurbished certain parts to keep the gun in working order but this hasn’t diminished the gun’s appeal. In fact, the guns are selling like hotcake in Manila.
Speaking of Manila gun stores, Dino Rodriguez (dinorodriguez@weapons-systems.com), operations manager of Weapons Systems Corp. dropped us a line last Monday:
“I was surfing the Internet and I stumbled across your articles on the Sun.Star Cebu website. I just had to say hello to a fellow enthusiast and hope to meet you in person in one of the gun shows. I was honestly surprised to find a newspaper that had a section on the shooting sports in the Philippines.
I just wish that other periodicals would follow your example and start treating the shooting sport as something like basketball or boxing, not something that is a negative thing.”
Thanks for taking time to write, Dino. I’m proud to say this paper has always been ahead of its time.
The paper itself isn’t screaming “to arms, to arms”, but it does recognize and respect those who are into it and helps by providing information on gun safety, responsibility, firing ranges and whatever we can cover on the subject of firearm laws.
And if I can save up enough from my poor writer’s pay to fly to Manila for the upcoming Defense and Sporting Arms Show next month, I will definitely drop by your booth to say hi.
Weapons Systems Corporation is the exclusive distributor of Steyr Mannlicher pistols from Austria, the Llama line of handguns from Spain, the EGE Shotguns and Sarsilmaz pistols from Turkey. They also have a good line of Norinco firearms from China, Browning Hi-Power clones from Arcus Co. in Bulgaria and products from STI of Texas.
FROM LAST WEEK. The lack of space forced the editors to lop off certain paragraphs from last week’s piece.
While we talked about three people being killed and with four others injured after two assailants went on a drive-by spree Thursday night, details concerning what happened and the identities of all the victims got lost in the layout.
The shooters remain unidentified, save for sketches culled from the descriptions made by witnesses. The fatalities, on the other hand, were identified as Lawrence Morados, 22, John Aznar, 24, and Stephen Vasquez, 18.
Those hurt are Mhako Buenconsejo, Jeffrey Romano, Rendon Pellerin and Rey Gonzalez.
Morados was declared DOA at the Cebu City Medical Center. The assailants shot him while he was onboard his motorcycle and passing along V. Gullas St. He was most likely an unintended casualty as the shot had been aimed at 18-year-old Buenconsejo, who in turn was only waiting for a ride home.
The gunmen drove to Ascension St. after the shooting. But before that, they passed by Sanciangko St. and shot Romano, 22, in the thigh.
In Ascencion St., located in Sambag I, they opened fire at three friends drinking outside a store. The hail of bullets left Aznar mangled with wounds in different parts of his body.
Aznar and his two other companions, Vasquez and Pellerin, had to be rushed to the Sacred Heart Hospital for wounds in the abdomen and the chest. Doctors declared Vasquez dead at around 1:30 a.m. Friday. Aznar was pronounced dead 15 minutes after.
The gunmen sped towards Uytengsu St. even before the police arrived at the first crime scene and met Gonzales who was cruising in the opposite direction on board his own motorcycle. The gunmen fired at him and wounded him in the arm.
