EDITORIAL - Deadly revelry

Shoot a bullet into the air, and it won’t disappear, but fall to Earth, you know not where. It could hit a living creature and maim or kill. In Batangas City during the Christmas celebration, a man was fishing in Barangay Wawa when a bullet hit him. Fortunately, the victim survived and is recuperating in a hospital.

Several others have not had such luck. In the past years, indiscriminate gunfire during the holiday revelry has killed or seriously wounded victims including children. A child was killed even while asleep at home when a stray bullet pierced the flimsy roof and ceiling of the family’s dwelling.

Nearly all the cases are unsolved. The Philippine National Police keeps an inventory of guns upon registration. This can allow probers to trace the source of a bullet and owner of a gun whose discharge causes injury or death. But the country is flooded with loose firearms, which can make it nearly impossible to trace the source of a stray bullet. The PNP has ended the practice during the Christmas season of sealing the muzzles of guns issued to its personnel, probably aware that many cops own other firearms.

This Yuletide from Dec. 16 to 26, the PNP has arrested 13 people, including three policemen, for illegally firing their guns. The other violators are two security guards, a soldier, a government official, a member of another law enforcement agency and five civilians.

Together with the case in Batangas City, there are now three stray bullet incidents recorded during the same period by the police. And New Year’s Eve is still several days away.

As in previous years, the PNP can’t do this alone; citizen vigilance can go a long way in catching those who fire their guns to welcome the New Year. Smartphones and closed-circuit television cameras make vigilance easier. The next time a bullet fired into the air causes serious injury or death, perhaps the one responsible may be caught.