CHILD welfare group, Akap Bata Party-List today airs strong condemnation over the series of incidents that caused death and serious injuries concerning children, brought by irresponsible ownership and use of guns in just one week.
The group refers to the serious cases of fatalities on children from stray bullets during the New Year’s revelry that killed two minors including 7-year old Stephanie Nicole Ella from Caloocan City and 4-year old Ranjilo Nemer of Mandaluyong City. They also cited the gun rampage in Kawit, Cavite yesterday (January 4) that left 2 kids and 5 adults killed, and 9 others wounded.
Akap Bata Party-List slams the government of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III for its poor law enforcement against hundreds of thousands of unregistered firearms in the country today. The group said that data from the PNP itself shows that aside from the 1.2 million registered firearms as of last year, there are still some 600,000 unlicensed firearms circulating across the country.
‘We wonder what our government is actually doing with the over 600,000 loose and unregistered firearms that are posing serious threats against our children. How many more minors have to die in order for our law enforcers to step up their efforts in drastically curbing gun possession in our country?’ says Arlene Brosas, National Secretary-General of Akap Bata Party-List.
Brosas added, ‘Now, more than ever is the right time for President Aquino to review its policies in terms of gun restrictions and enact more serious and stricter laws on ownership and use of guns locally. Firearm bans during holidays will never be enough to ensure that our children will live in safe, secure and peaceful communities all year round.’
She continues, ‘What bothers us more is the involvement of some active and retired military, police and other men in uniform in these trigger-happy incidents that victimizes our children and people. It seems that the yearly sealing of their guns before the New Year only serves as photo ops.’
‘We want to see stricter law enforcement against unjust ownership and use of firearms in the country. In cases of registered gun owners, the government must also set certain standards that will ensure that gun owners are responsible enough and mentally-healthy and qualified,’ stresses Brosas.
Finally, Akap Bata Party-List fears that if the government will continue to be lenient and lax in the rampant ownership of either registered or loose firearms in the country, then we must not be surprised if one day we will wake-up with a similar case of the shooting rampage incident in Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed over 20 school children in Newton, Connecticut, USA last month.