Friday, January 04, 2008 Wenceslao: Handling firearms By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
THIS is actually the turf of Sun.Star's Karlon Rama, who writes the column, Stage Five. But while I am not a gun holder and have not gone through formal gun handling training, I did have close encounters with gun users. The memories filtered back because of recent reports involving guns that killed one child and critically wounded another.
The incident involving a cop was ironic in the sense that he is also a firing range officer. PO3 Benjamin Herbias Jr. accidentally firing his gun when a door hit his hand may have been a freak accident, but he killed three-year-old Shane Kent Bel Lunzaga. In most cases of accidental firing, the gun holder ends up rapping himself for the error.
The latest firearm incident involved two children, one the alleged culprit and the other the victim. Some reports say the suspect, a 12-year-old boy, aimed the .357 revolver at 11-year-old Stephanie Apostol before firing. Others said he threw the gun on the table and it fired. But what was not disputed was that the gun did end up in a child’s hands.
Guns are dangerous, no doubt about that, and owners must use extra-precaution in handling it. Most firearm accidents are a result of carelessness, or the failure to absorb the bitter lessons of other gun incidents. This is why some people are campaigning against the proliferation of guns. The recent gun incidents tend to strengthen their arguments.
Among the sad tales I know in this regard was the one that involved a young man who tucked in his waistband a homemade gun called “bali-bali,” which uses only one 5.56 mm bullet at a time. He was reaching for a container of water when he accidentally touched the gun, which fired. The bullet hit the head of his brother, who was asleep.
I don't know whether the boy eventually recovered, but for a time he was so inconsolable he roamed the mountain barangay for days like he lost his senses. The other accidents I knew were less tragic: a shotgun going off, the pellets pelting the roof of a house; a Springfield rifle being accidentally fired by a man toying with its trigger, etc.
Meanwhile a young man, who was alone in the house, practiced pulling an empty .38 revolver from its holster and firing at an imaginary target. He later placed the gun, already loaded, on the altar and went inside the kitchen. After eating, he saw the gun, absent-mindedly picked it up, aimed at an imaginary target, and pulled the trigger. Blam!
In fairness to licensed gun holders, many of them are responsible ones. But with some gun makers in Danao manufacturing paltiks by the dozen, the danger of firearms falling into the wrong hands is multiplied. The gun that wounded Apostol, for example, was not licensed and it was obvious that the suspect’s parents got careless with it.
Many stray bullet incidents during the New Year are actually caused by unlicensed guns. This is why despite police and the military officials going through the ritual of taping their people’s guns to prevent them from using these for merrymaking, stray bullet incidents still happen. Unlicensed gun holders are usually the careless ones.
The tragic incidents involving guns should hopefully make gun holders learn the bitter lessons of carelessness. That includes facing the consequences of their acts.
