GUNS OF OCTOBER

I AM A SELF-STYLED “gunless society” advocate yet I am also skilled with a gun being someone who happen to be trained by an ex-Sayaret Matkal in the early '90s. Why is that? Is it possible to stand in the middle amidst two differing principles? That is a line of thought I could easily live with being someone who has been there at one time or another.

It cannot be denied that more and more people have fell victim to criminality and the police cannot be at certain places all the time to give protection. It cannot also be denied that more and more people have access to guns now than ever before and crime statistics have risen because of that.

Then again, why not make a stand that would benefit the best of both worlds? Teach people about the principles of a gunless society while firing a gun on the side. Double speak? Maybe? But I don't care what you think. If teaching people both would result to a betterment of society then, so be it. I don't care about the politics behind each side.

So, once again, my gun skills will be used for the betterment of certain individuals who, by the nature of their work, are tasked to carry guns, guard private properties and protect the lives of company officers, employees and their visitors. I am talking about the often-neglected and often-ignored private security guards.

This writer under the banner of my personal blog - Warrior Pilgrimage - was tapped by Tactical Security and Detective Agency, Inc. in October to conduct the Basic Gun Safety and Firearms Proficiency Training upon their guards assigned with Oro China Jewelry and with Gateway Motors (Cebu), Inc. at different firing ranges in Metro Cebu.

Security guards from among the different outlets of Oro China Jewelry scattered in the cities of Cebu, Lapulapu and Danao availed of this program on October 2. Firearms used were a 9-millimeter pistol, a caliber .38 revolver and a 12-gauge shotgun. The well-maintained Kamagong Firing Range inside Camp Lapulapu, Cebu City was used as venue.

Participants fire five rounds per position totaling 25 rounds for revolver, 15 rounds for 9mm pistol and two rounds for shotgun. Positions were standing for both pistol and revolver at 10 meters using strong hand and 5 meters for weak hand; kneeling, sitting and prone for revolver only at 10 meters; and a 5-meter draw-and-fire pistol on a selected target. Aside that, familiarization firing for a 12-gauge shotgun is also laid for the firers.

The following week on October 9, sixteen guards comprising the first batch coming from the different areas of Gateway Motors like KIA-Gorordo, KIA-AC Cortes, KIA-Linao, KIA-Tawason and BMW-Nivel Hills were fetched from the agency headquarters in Mandaue City and fired guns at the NS Firing Range, Tawason, Mandaue City.

I had my hands full overseeing the 16 firers on a very hot day until Mr. Zaldy Recla, human resource manager of Gateway Motors, came to assist me. Mr. Recla is also a club member of NS Gun Club whose firing range in Tawason is the ones we used.

I used the same formula as with the previous participants (to include the 14 company officers, employees and security guards from Cebu Grand Hotel that I taught at Aqua City Firing Range, Talisay City on July 23, 2011) and I find it effective and very practical. Also, this is the first opportunity for all the guards to fire different firearms and at dissimilar distances and situations.

On October 23 and at the same NS Firing Range, it was the turn of the second batch of guards from Gateway Motors comprising eleven people. Mr. Recla came again to give support to his wards and, at the middle of the day, both this writer and Mr. Recla test-fired a US M2 Carbine as consolation to release a long drawn urge to tickle this classic assault rifle.

Afterwards, I treated the guards to a late lunch in Upper Canduman while being entertained by our very own Flash Donaire demolishing Omar Narvaez of Argentina on late broadcast TV. Warrior Pilgrimage would like to thank Mr. Recla and to security officers, Fernando Ypil and Robert Unabia of Tactical Security, for valuable support to all my engagements.

For this series of firing range activities of October, Warrior Pilgrimage, in consonance with Tactical Security & Detective Agency, Inc., is happy to give each firer certificates that would enhance their standing in the security industry and I see a smooth relationship in the future.

 

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A DAY AT THE RANGE

I AM A GUNLESS SOCIETY advocate but, at the same time, I teach people how to use guns. I may sound like an oxymoron and that I am. If you have another word for it, you may call me such. I don't care.

I have gun skills that have lain inert for some time and that skill is going to be used in the furtherance of my advocacy. The time has come for it to be imparted to other people provided that the principles of a gunless society are also discussed before the actual basic firing is even started so the participants could recognize the destructive power of guns.

An opportunity knocked on April 3, 2011. Security officers and office staff of a well-known local security agency availed of my services to conduct a Basic Gun Safety and Firearms Proficiency Training in a remote firing range south of Cebu City. I introduced the participants to the most fundamental points of gun safety; identification of basic gun parts and its main accessory – the cartridge round; general gun terms; the laws that regulate its proliferation; and the main government agencies tasked to enforce gun laws and its regulation, licensing and permits.

Then my lecture moved on to the “dominant hand and the dominant eye” principle; the different shooting stance; proper sight adjustment; breathing techniques; and how or when to squeeze the trigger. At the firing range, I assumed the role of range warden and refreshed the firers the basic gun-safety rules before the first participant came forward to grip a gun.

The course I designed is so simple and very basic and applies to both male and female. Five rounds for a firing stance at 10 meters distance with weak hand supporting dominant hand shooting a caliber .38 revolver; another five rounds for a firing stance at 5 meters distance with only the dominant hand firing a revolver. Same styles are repeated, this time with a 9-millimeter pistol at five rounds each.

Revolvers used were an Armscor 220, a Rexio Jaguar and a WORLD-MPC Lapulapu; 9-mm pistols were an Armscor GI 1911 and a FEG Kassnar. Ammo fired were reloads from a firearms trading store located in Salinas Drive, Cebu City. All five female and nine male fired twenty rounds each for both types of gun or ammunition. The activity ended at 4:30 PM after all nine male firers fired two buckshot rounds each from an Armscor Buddy 20 pump-action shotgun from 7 meters distance.

I also have my day testing all the firearms on use to include a palm-sized single-action RG caliber .22 revolver, a BUL Cherokee 9-mm pistol and a Colt Mark IV caliber .45 pistol. For a scale of one to five, I rate the following according to its easy operation and feel, mechanism design, recoil and target consistency:

      Armscor 220, Caliber .38, Revolver, Philippines 3.5

      Rexio Jaguar, Caliber .38, Revolver, Argentina 2.0

      WORLD-MPC Lapulapu, Caliber .38, Revolver, Phils. 0.5

      RG, Caliber .22, Revolver, Germany 0.5

      Armscor GI 1911, 9-mm, Pistol, Philippines 3.8

      FEG Kassnar, 9-mm, Pistol, Hungary 4.5

      BUL Cherokee, 9-mm, Pistol, Israel 5.0

      Colt Mark IV, Caliber .45, Pistol, USA 5.0

      Armscor Buddy 20, 12-gauge, Shotgun, Philippines 4.5

However, the rounds used during testing (except for the shotgun) were reloads and old ammo stock and that make operation of the above firearms very complicated and subjecting these to extreme mechanical vulnerabilities beyond what most are designed for.

It feels good to fire a gun again and I noticed that the holes I make on the cardboard targets are tight as was the time I last leave them many years ago. Some habits die hard so they say. I must admit it has stayed except the guns. I don't own one.

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BE AN ADVOCATE OF A GUNLESS SOCIETY OR BE AN ADVOCATE OF THE DEVIL.

IT IS ONCE said in the 19^th century: that the gunpowder is the devil's most destructive invention ever and that guns were the offspring of this vile instrument of death. Ever since Samuel Colt created and mass-produced the first sophisticated weapon in the world in 1860, there had been far more many mortalities of humans and animals alike in a short span of roughly a hundred and fifty years when modern guns, cannons, bombs and similar contraptions were used than those that happened in and around 2,000 years of human aggression history. It tamed the wild West, participated in two world wars and aided in numerous pockets of conflict and ethnic cleansing.

Surely, you wouldn't feel secure having people around you toting guns, would you? And, conversely, you do feel secure having a gun with you, don't you?. What for? Protection? Or empowerment of your ego? Human nature, whether we like it or not, are prone to fits of aggression and that impulsive behavior associated with the greed for more power, territory and domination.

Guns are a commodity which everyone has access to nowadays provided you have the moolah to procure one. In the process, every one individual is assumed to own a gun, legit or not, it doesn't matter at all how they use it for their own benefit or ends. Society has never been so unsafe as before and the authorities, with prodding from middlemen and from gun lobbyists, have tolerated the proliferation of controlled and loose firearms in the guise of the constitutional “right to bear arms” (as if we lived in a medieval age) and for profit. Big profits, of course!

You don't need special skills now how to blow away to smithereens your perceived enemy. Hide behind a corner, just close one eye and squeeze the trigger. Effortless. Clean. Masterful. Forget the sound effects and ignore the stench of burnt cordite. It comes with the package. If you miss once, you have five or more chances and, surely, your prey could not outrun the ballistics you let loose at 400 feet per second? You liked it the first time and you crave for more. More blood, that is. Go make an enemy of your wife, your mother-in-law or your school teacher or whomever you think is a threat. Choose your targets well. Master your firing position. I just could not imagine, in the end, your bullet will come back full circle at you as you take aim at your own mouth in a fit of self-annihilation. Well, it happened at Columbine High. At Virginia Tech. In the Middle East, they do it much grander and with more public participation. By dying as “martyrs” with bombs strapped to them.

Legitimate gun owners have been carping about gun ethics and responsible ownership. Rubbish. Ethics apply only to them as they see fit that benefited them – as a tool to skip around gun-control laws. I don't see any reason perfecting your craft for years just by shooting at cardboard targets that don't shoot back. Obviously, behind that hobby, as a pistol-shooting enthusiast, is a primeval instinct of aggression that is veiled and unharnessed yet, but, in due time, as opportunity would permit, would use that honed skill against a hostile adversary in a traffic snarl or against an unwelcome intruder of property or home. The urge for the first kill is first and foremost of every gun holder's mind.

Firearms or guns, if by chance be allowed of use to, should be limited only to those who composed the tactical units of the police and the military and should be strictly monitored and accounted for. Not only that, they should pass regular and strict neuro-psychiatric tests and other behavioral evaluations. In this way, it is understood that these individuals are highly-trained and competent in the use of guns and its derivatives and, therefore, will give the assurance that they are fit to carry weapons.

Private individuals who opted to pursue the privilege of possessing licensed firearms should be screened tightly and strictly, limited to possess only short firearms of a firepower not exceeding caliber .32 (Magnum .22 is not included) and inside residences only for a period of one (1) year. He or she has the option to re-apply. The permit to carry guns outside residence should be discouraged and rebuked.

Criteria for issuance of gun permits should be evaluated to the following: threats to life, retired military or police personnel, personal or VIP security personnel, corporate and bank security, local executives tasked to enforce the laws and to those persons who administer areas or territories which have no assigned police or military personnel. Special transit permits is accorded to those who comprise the national shooting team and legitimate gun club members.

It is important to note that private vehicles should not be made as an extension of one's home which many gun holders have found it convenient as loopholes against gun control statutes. Collection of guns as a hobby should be considered unlawful despite being defanged of firing pins and other mechanisms and it is not advisable either to display guns in a museum or the like for it promotes a culture of violence. Ditto with staging of gun shows.

Bearing firearms is not a right but a privilege that can be stripped of anytime.

It is interesting to note that here in the Philippines, one man has the courage to advocate for a Gunless Society despite the sheer number of oppositors and the threats he received while waging this unpopular campaign. He is Nandy Pacheco. I never met him but I heard of him. I only lent and add my voice to his, hoping some of us can make a difference with the advocacy of a gunless society in this gun-crazy country.

And lastly, “There's no honor killing people using guns. It's a cowardly thing.” (from the movie, The Hunted).

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