Gun owners face tougher license screening
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Jakarta Police are acting on the assumption that although you might not be able to judge a person's character by their appearance, you should be able to gain some insight into an individual's potential for criminal behavior from their handwriting.
Police are hoping that graphology, the science of analyzing handwriting, will be a useful tool not only in uncovering cases of forgery, but also in providing a significant and accurate analysis of an individual's personality in deciding whether to grant someone a license to own and carry a firearm.
City police announced on Friday a plan suggested by psychologists and other experts on human behavior to tighten existing procedures in obtaining or renewing a gun license through additional behavior assessment and graphology tests.
Police plan to use psychiatric evaluations to determine whether a gun owner might have a tendency toward psychopathic, paranoid or sadistic behavior and therefore represent a danger to public safety.
They also plan to analyze the handwriting of each person applying for a new license or a renewal of a current gun license. Police assert that through the use of graphology, they will be able to detect latent personality disorders that would make the person a danger to others if he or she is armed.
City police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tjiptono said the policy was introduced in view of several shooting incidents in the capital over the past several months.
"The number of cases where firearms have been misused is increasing. That's why the chief has issued the order that such tests should be done," he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
He cited an incident in August 2004, in which a popular comedian, Parto, fired his gun into the air in the lobby of Planet Hollywood restaurant; another on New Year's Day, in which businessman Adiguna Sutowo allegedly shot and killed a waiter at a Hilton Hotel bar, and most recently the shooting of a thug hired to protect a disputed plot of land on Jl. HR Rasuna Said by public order officer Krisman Siregar.
City police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani explained that in order to reduce the occurrence of violent crimes, "Now, we will not only administer the standard psychological test that we have been using. Under this new plan, every gun owner will have to pass a series of tests, including behavior assessment and graphology analysis".
Firman told reporters at his office on Friday that such evaluations could determine how an individual applying for a gun license, or an extension of an existing license, might respond under pressure, and what tendencies that person might exhibit. If the tests indicate that they might act violently, then they will not be issued with a license.
"Even though we have been applying the tightest of procedures in licensing guns, the police and the city public order office also have to make sure that licensed gun owners do not abuse their right to carry arms," Firman said. (001)