Bishop favors gunless society

            ”Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, chairman of the CBCP’s Commission on Social Action, Justice and Peace, said the world must promote the eradication of deadly weapons in order to attain peace.”  - from cathnews.phil,, January 17, 2012. The rest of article did not mention what these deadly weapons are, whether they include nuclear weapons and laser beams for mass destruction. Judging from the accompanying photo, however, he was definitely referring to handguns.          There are many people out there, like Bishop Pabillo, well-meaning, intelligent, educated and articulate, who fear guns with almost irrational fervor, simply because they do not comprehend the gun as a technological tool, understand the reason the people who own them and why they own them. To Bishop Pabillo and his group, the gun is inherently evil and simplistically equate the gun with crime and violence.           A gun in itself is just an tool like a pencil. A gun by itself does not kill, anymore than a pencil by itself misspells words. People hurt and maim and kill people. In the history of mankind, in any society, at any given time, crime and violence are results of socio-cultural, economic and institutional factors and NOT as results of availability of any particular weapon.          More guns, more crimes? Consider the hard facts. In the United States, only 40% of the household own guns. In Switzerland and Israel, almost all homes have guns because of their militia. Yet, the per capita crime and violence of United States far, far, far outnumber those in Switzerland and Israel. In the ’60′s, the British confiscated ALL guns in Ireland under the pretext of ballistics recording, but in reality, to prevent the guns from getting in the hands of the IRA. Ten years later, the guns have still to be returned, yet, the crime rate in Ireland had increased with the population! Luxembourg has very stringent gun control compared with its neighbor Austria. Yet, the per capita crime rate in Luxembourg is higher than Austria. Statistically, there were more violence in the United States by the use of hands and feet than in Great Britain. Does this mean the Americans have more hands and feet than the British?          The right to own a gun is as fundamental as being a free man. The first two things I purchased with my meager engineer’s salary when I got married in Mindanao in the late ’60′s were a refrigerator and a revolver. I thought that to depend my family is my fundamental obligation, as basic as providing them with food and shelter. To care for and protect my family was, is and will always be a basic obligation. I am inspired by the gospel where Our Lord Jesus He told his disciple: “He who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one”. – Luke 22:38, and in 1 Timothy 5:8 – “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”  And I thought of the American colonists who, if they did not have guns, would have been ran over by the British army. Hitler knew this. When he was made dictator of Germany, one of his first acts for total control of the population was to make it weak, and so he disarmed them. He outlawed the ownership of guns. One of the first things Marcos did after declaring martial law was to confiscate loose arms and required all legitimate gun owners to re-register in Camp Crame.          You might want to hear the views of men more articulate than I: Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWsE9jvwjLA&feature=share which I titled as “Bearing arms is a fundamental right”. Here’s another which I titled: “Guns for peace and prosperity” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHX5lAslnTc&feature=player_embedded