Kopi Talk Chicken-and-egg for gun ban.

Hi ManilaB thanks for ther article "Right to bear arms" I heard is in the republic's constitution but  it does not imply that all  Filipinos have the "Money to buy arms." One thing for sure, in Philippine foreigners and guns don't mix here. If that gun is ever used, every possible attempt will be made to make you the bad guy. The gun needs to be registered by a Filipino (not the foreign husband or wife). As long as you can prove you used it inside the home to defend the home, you should be OK. In other words, if you take it out in the street and use it to settle an argument, you would be in deep trouble. One way I look at it though for example if a burglar breaks into your home, he is objective is bent of stealing and getting away with the loot , he is also prepared that he may be detected, so he is on the upper hand in terms of action. Then the owner shows up with a gun, he does not use it and the burglar is arrested so the next time that burglar goes house breaking guess what he will be carrying ? I would tend to say the best form of defense is the dog, however here is another alternative in Scotland the whiskey distillery used to use geese , In Gamu our neighbor  have geese in the compound, believe me they make more noise and cause more damage than any dog. Geese make good guard dogs, make a hell of a noise when an intruder walks in their territory. Apparently they can bite or peck or what ever it is they do to defend themselves. Ironically, in the Philippines you might miss one every now and then when a neighbor runs low on food for the table.

The best advice I  heard given by my foreigner friend believe that state of mind is most important - walk around paranoid problems surface daily. Act like the long-term expats, laid-back friendly, yet not naive, and life becomes laid-back  everybody is friendly. Whenever the locals try to drag him into political discussions, he would tell them "What do I know, I'm just a dumb foreigner."

Posted by Manila B

If the Philippine National Police wants public support for a permanent total gun ban, the initiative will succeed if several conditions are met. One is to make the ban genuinely total — meaning no one is exempted. Top officials in all three branches of government, their relatives and cronies must be covered. Influential politicians or their relatives, cronies and private armies must be covered by the ban. This is important particularly in the light of the massacre last year of 57 people in Maguindanao, wherein the accused masterminds belong to the ruling political clan in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Even military and police officers must be covered. They can pack guns only while still in the service, and keep only weapons issued by the government; no personal armories must be allowed. This is important particularly because several organized crime rings have turned out to be led by military or police officers, many of them still in the active service.
Rebel groups negotiating peace with the government must agree to disarm. Villagers in certain areas of Mindanao have not yet recovered from the trauma of the deadly raids conducted by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front nearly two years ago, after the Arroyo administration was forced to scrap the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain with the secessionists. Laying down weapons must be a precondition for discussing peace.
Other groups that are not interested in peace must be forcibly disarmed. For this the government must do a better job of stopping the trafficking of firearms. As it is, the government is unable or unwilling to stop even the underground cottage industry in Danao, Cebu, where guns of various calibers are made.
Which comes first: public safety or at least self-defense, or a gun-less society? This has become a chicken-and-egg thing. The weakness of the state in protecting its citizens has made gun ownership and proficiency in the use of weapons indispensable for survival in many parts of the country. If the police and other security agencies can do an efficient job of keeping the public safe, law-abiding citizens will gladly go along with a permanent gun ban.
Giant cows, drinking dogs, spruce geese.(Columns)(Column): An article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)