MANILA, PhilippinesA political party on Thursday called on media companies, organizations and practitioners to join the campaign for stricter gun control laws, saying the growing number of killings of journalists and politicians, as well as stray-bullet incidents, are all symptoms of uncontrolled gun proliferation in Philippine society.
Ang Kapatiran Party said media men, instead of arming themselves, should push for amendments of the gun control law limiting the carrying of firearms in public to only those who are authorized, in uniform or on duty.
Killed for reporting the truth? The killings of journalists in the Philippines isnt about press freedom. It is about gun control, read a Kapatiran Party poster uploaded on its website on Christmas Day.
Guns dont die
The poster also contained a slogan stating, Guns dont die, people do, a reverse of the progun lobby groups slogan Guns dont kill, people do.
In a phone interview, Kapatiran president Norman Cabrera said that while motives for the killing of Filipino journalists may be job-related, the fact remained that journalists were killed by guns.
When a journalist says or writes something and is ordered killed by someone who gets offended, why do we say its about press freedom? Nobody is calling the [problem] proliferation of firearms, Cabrera told the Inquirer.
He pointed out that in criminal cases related to the killings of journalists that get filed before the courts, investigators focus more on the shooting incident itself, probing on who shot the victim, what gun was used, who it is registered to or if the bullets really came from the suspects gun.
Focus on the gun
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Media urged to join drive for gun control