Philippine gun makers take aim from the backyard to the production line

reuters.com ^ | 28 July, 2012 | Manuel Mogato

[marktwain]

(Reuters) - In the Philippines, they vote with their trigger fingers. Elections mean big business for illegal gunsmiths, who are looking forward to 2013 mid-term polls.

With election-related violence commonplace, the Philippines imposes a ban on the carrying of guns for six months, from campaigning to the proclamation of winners.

With legal access denied, Filipinos simply turn to the many illegal gunsmiths who ply their trade in back alleys and on the edge of rice fields despite government crackdowns.

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According to www.gunpolicy.org, a site hosted by the University of Sydney's School of Public Health in Australia, there are about 3.9 million guns -- legal and illegal -- held by civilians in the Philippines, or about 4.7 per 100 people.

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While not at the levels of Central and South America, the number was still almost triple that of the United States, which had 3.3 homicides per 100,000 people the same year.

[marktwain]

Less guns, more crime. Yet there are still people that claim that the United States has the highest rate of "gun violence" anywhere in the world.

[wita]

NFA needs to go along with every other unconstitutional gun law ever passed in the congress.

The congress thought who knows what when they placed a tax on machine guns. Now honest people can’t afford them, and the government gives them away in misguided efforts at who knows what.

Remaining comments self censored.

[expat1000]

It’s so easy to make a 1911 knockoff. They’re everywhere. There’s a lot of them here in Thailand.

I think there are many Uzi knockoffs in the PI. There’s a weapon that is even easier to manufacture than a single action autoloader like the 1911.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

When Marcos was in power he ordered the registration of all firearms in the Philippines. The American MSM was ecstatic and said the US should follow his lead.

I said Marcos would confiscate the guns within two years.

The next year Marcos confiscated the registered guns. The US media heaped praise on him for his progressive ideas.

I said he would seize power within two years.

One year later Marcos seized power in the Philippines. The US MSM was livid even though they should have seen what was coming years before.

[marktwain]

Excellent points.

Yet many pretend that Gun Registration does not lead to Gun Confiscation.

Old but Good one:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2608785/posts