Want killings to stop? Go after the guns!

For Cebu governor Hilario Davide III, the spate of killings in the province these past few days is quite alarming. In a bid to stem the tide of murders in this once-peaceful island, the governor wants more police visibility. The regional police director, Chief Superintendent Robert Quenery, is even more specific. He wants his men to stop the killings.

The twin approaches are, of course, good to hear. In reality, however, what is good to hear may not exactly be what is needed. For example, at no time in this country, not just in Cebu, is police visibility at an all-time high. Never have Cebuanos experienced seeing police vehicles, lights flashing, do patrols more often or park themselves in areas visible to everyone.

In other words, there is no need to ask for more police visibility because they already are. On the other hand, the order for the police to stop the killings merely reiterates one of the primary duties of the police. It merely reemphasizes what they are supposed to do. And then there is this tricky thing about perceptions that sometimes the police themselves might be involved in some of the crimes they are supposed to stop.

This makes the exhortation rather limp and hollow. This does not mean, of course, that the police can no longer be trusted. They are trusted. In fact, it is important and necessary to continue trusting the police because anything short of that can lead to chaos and anarchy. It is always far better to trust the police than people taking the law into their own hands.

But perhaps there is a better way to stop, if not minimize, all these killings and other crimes that involve the use of guns. And it is to go after the loose guns themselves. It is no secret that guns are now almost as easy to acquire as cellphones. While guns are almost everywhere, their makers are not. There could not be a thousand gun makers in Cebu. It should be easy to keep track of them.

Besides, gun-making requires a certain permanence. It is not like texting that one can do illegally even while driving. To make a gun, a maker needs to stay put in one place for the time it takes to make one gun. If it takes one day to make a gun, that should keep the maker rooted in one place for at least one day. That should be enough for the police to strike. The bottomline is, you want killings to stop, deprive killers the means to do so. Go after the guns.