Crime begets crime via illegal firearms
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Siregar (not his real name), 40, a drug dealer who operates at the Blok M market and bus terminal in South Jakarta, always carries a gun for protection when he delivers drugs to customers.
"You don't know what might happen along the way. The police can apprehend you or other drug dealers could mess with you. People like me have no other choice but to fight back -- or be arrested or even be killed," he told The Jakarta Post, showing the one kilogram of marijuana he was carrying in a black plastic bag.
He said he had never had to use the gun to shoot anybody -- he only showed it to other drug dealers to make it clear that he was ready to use it if they bothered him.
Rino (not his real name), 31, a thug whose turf is the Senen market and bus terminal in Central Jakarta, has a different reason for owning a gun -- he said, "you have to have something to become a respected thug in Jakarta."
"People are always afraid of guns, so I bought one. I've never had any trouble with other thugs since, and I can claim my own territory," he told the Post at a small cafe near the terminal. Rino said he could now ask for protection money from many shops in the Senen area.
Once in a while, he said, he joined more experienced "colleagues" to carry out an "operation" if they received good information on robbing a bank customer or a house in a luxury neighborhood.
"But I am very careful about this. If I feel it is too risky, I turn down the job," Rino said.
Of the 10 members in his loose-knit group, seven had guns that they used in robberies and other crimes.
In recent years, the public has increasingly become concerned as armed robberies occur almost every day.
According to data from the Jakarta Police, robberies have increased by 45.3 percent over the last year, from 14,268 in 2003 to 20,734 in 2004. Of the total robbery cases in 2004, 201 involved firearms, while less than 100 armed robberies were recorded in 2003.
Article 1 of the Firearms Law No. 12/1951 and its stipulation of a maximum sentence of death does not appear to have been a deterrent.
An officer at National Police Headquarters, who asked for anonymity, said almost all criminals they caught possessed unlicensed guns.
"We estimate that around 100,000 illegal guns were circulating in Jakarta in 2004. Most of these guns are used in robberies and other crimes, and the guns easily change hands among criminals for only one or two million rupiah," he told the Post.
The number of illegal guns in circulation far outstrips that of legal firearms -- according to National Police data, only 15,881 guns are owned by licensed civilians.
Robby Chandra, director of PT Kharisma Mas Indoputra, one of the 10 legal gun traders in the capital, concurred with the police source, saying that only people with criminal intent tended to buy illegal guns.
He explained his logic: "(People who buy illegal guns) have to hide the gun and can't show it in public because the police might find out. And they have go deep into the mountains or forests for target practice. So, it's useless for normal citizens to own an illegal gun."
He acknowledged that the high price of a legal gun -- between Rp 30 million and Rp 165 million, depending on the caliber -- was one of the reasons why someone might choose to buy an illegal gun.