FIREARMS TRAFFICKING
The symbolic lives of firearms!
What themes emerge from studying the symbolic lives of firearms?
Gun advocates describe ways that firearms represent forms of selfhood forged through the protection of home and family. Conservative U.S. author David French (2018) tells of obtaining guns to protect his wife and children after feeling threatened by strangers in the neighborhood where he and his family lived. French purchased guns to keep in his home, and soon began carrying a weapon in public as well. “You feel a sense of burning conviction,” he writes, “that you, your family, and your community are safer and freer because you own and carry a gun.” (Picture Source below: https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-1500w,f_auto,q_auto:best/newscms/2018_13/2378401/180327-think-gun-show-se-330p.jpg)
Books such as Chris Bird’s Thank God I Had a Gun (2008) similarly, narrate support for gun rights through anecdotal renderings of armed citizens who stand their ground to protect themselves, their loved ones, or their property against intruders. Bird describes “heroes” such as, “Barbara,” who in her moment of need “was wearing a small Smith and Wesson five-shot revolver in an inside the waistband holster” and carrying her Winchester Defender shotgun when “she took a few steps outside…she could see two figures silhouetted.”
These types of representations speak of tensions that public health advocates have at times been slow to recognize—namely, that policies that regulate or restrict firearm ownership often neglect to address beliefs about guns among people who own them. In pro-gun communities, guns convey familiarity and custom and suggest a connection to neighbors or notions of cultural heritage. Such associations in turn give particular charge to alarmist rhetoric warning that liberals, researchers, or particular politicians aim to “take away your guns”—the implication being that these persons would uproot your families and traditions as well. (Picture Source below: https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/08/06/us/06redflag/merlin_151453419_436945f8-0e85-4a78-9265-458613903070-superJumbo.jpg)
Gun identity is often contextual as well, influenced by factors such as regulation, legal status, medical condition, or job title.
This only shows why “ALMOST EVERYONE WANT TO HAVE A GUN”, and this is what “self-preservation means”. But controlling and regulating the ownership means also protection and self-preservation which requires rigorous study as well. In this particular study, we will look into how the Philippines regulates the ownership of firearms and deter “trafficking and smuggling” by looking into its laws. The slide presentation below will guide you on this!
DOWNLOAD HERE: Presidential Decree 1866
DOWNLOAD HERE: Republic Act 8294
DOWNLOAD HERE: Republic Act 9516
DOWNLOAD HERE: Republic Act 10591
Click PREVIOUS to review and visit the previous topic of this module (The Drug Trafficking)
Click NEXT to proceed to Carnapping (Human Trafficking will be presented in the last module)