Guns for sale
Guns for sale
Do guns kill? No. People do.Catchy words, which those who are
involved in the illegal sale
of guns could use to justify their actions. After midnight on
Monday, in its interactive program Midnight Life, privately run
station MetroTV interviewed an illegal gun supplier and a buyer.
The supplier, using the pseudonym of Anton, lives in Los Angeles,
USA, while the buyer -- the interviewer called him Jimmy -- lives
in Jakarta.
The supplier, around 30 years old, said that he started his
illegal business in 1996, when he was about 17. He said he bought
the guns in Europe and smuggled them into Kalimantan via
Malaysia, claiming he had "friends" in several Southeast Asian
countries.
The safest way to bring in the guns was by ground
transportation, he said, adding that he had never found chance
encounters with Indonesian police officers on the borders a
problem. "From 1996 to 1998 I sold around 50 guns, mostly Colt
45s," he said.
When a home viewer phoned to join the interview, to ask
whether he (the supplier) ever felt guilty about causing trouble
by making gun ownership possible for everybody, Anton merely said
"no", arguing that that was his business.
Jimmy said, in another live interview, that his customers were
people of a certain class who lived in Jakarta. "It would be
unethical for me to reveal their profession." He said that the
guns he had sold were usually smuggled from Taiwan or Singapore.
He said he did not know what his customers used their guns for.
A criminologist has said that security in the capital city is
at stake, due to the rampant illegal sale of guns, which involves
military and police officers.
On Aug. 19, two military officers were involved in a fight
after an alleged transaction of guns belonging to the Indonesian
Army. Several members of the Army were also punished for selling
guns to the separatist group Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
A police captain has been dismissed and sentenced to three
years imprisonment for selling five guns.
The involvement of police and military officers in the illegal
gun business proves that the business is extremely lucrative. The
business has triggered the uncontrolled use of guns among
civilians, including for crime.
Indonesia still uses Law No. 12/1951 to control the illegal
sale of guns. According to the law, those found guilty of
smuggling or illegally manufacturing guns may risk the death
penalty or -- at least -- 20 years in jail. Ownership of firearms
is permitted in Indonesia under very strict regulations.
Despite the death penalty, illegal gun traders continue to do
business. Many of them, like Anton, remain free. So, there must
be something wrong with the way in which the law is enforced.
The police or military usually refer to officers involved in
such crimes as oknum, meaning that they have given their
profession a bad name. While the institution tries to wash their
hands clean of responsibility, the oknum's behavior reflects poor
management within it. Thus, only internal action can prevent the
emergence of more oknum.
It is possible that police or military oknum are involved in
the illegal businesses run by Anton and Jimmy. The military and
police must have the courage to weed out bad seeds, before they
conduct operations to enforce the law.
If no police or military officers are involved in the illegal
gun business, then what is stopping them from apprehending people
like Anton and Jimmy?
If things are so out of hand, people may well wonder, why
doesn't the government totally ban gun ownership among civilians?