INTERIOR and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla plans to propose requiring gun owners to sign a waiver allowing police officers to inspect their firearm safekeeping facilities.
Remulla said the measure aims to ensure that firearms are properly secured and inaccessible to unauthorized users, particularly minors.
“The Supreme Court gave a ruling before that it is intrusive upon the nature of the police to search the homes of gun owners. I will appeal that ruling,” Remulla said.
“It will not be done through a search warrant. Rather, they should sign a waiver that, at any time with one day’s notice, they can be inspected. We do not mean to catch them as criminals; we just want to make sure that their safekeeping of firearms is done in the proper way,” he added.
Remulla said the proposal would also benefit gun owners by ensuring that their children do not have access to firearms, which should be kept under lock and key.
“There should be a minimum set of standards. It is for them too, not only for us,” he added.
Earlier, Remulla urged Congress to amend the country’s gun laws, particularly by imposing stricter penalties on violators.
His call followed the shooting at the San Jose National High School in Tacloban City on June 22, which left three students dead, and the August 17 gun attack at Ateneo de Zamboanga University, where two students, including the minor gunman, were killed.
In the Tacloban incident, one of the minor suspects reportedly took the firearm of his policewoman aunt. In the Ateneo shooting, the sole perpetrator used firearms issued by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to his father, a BOC official.
Authorities said the incidents could have been prevented had the firearms been properly secured by their owners.
Charges of reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and physical injuries have been filed against the policewoman and the BOC official.
Remulla earlier noted that under the country’s current gun laws, firearm owners are not held liable if their weapons are used to commit crimes. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)