Gun Owners Cheer As Philippine House Moves to Relax Gun Control Laws

In the Philippines, gun ownership is considered a privilege, not a right. As a result, the country has incredibly restrictive gun control laws, including a ban on possessing guns in public during campaign season. Despite the restrictions, gun ownership in the country isn’t all that rare, though that wasn’t always the case. 

After Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972, owners were limited to one low-powered rifle and a pistol or revolver—and both had to be licensed. But in 2000, President Joseph Estrada lifted these limits and allowed citizens to possess as many guns as they wanted, of any type and caliber.

A 2013 law set down qualifications for owning guns and carrying them in public. Licensed gun owners had to be 21 years old and take a firearm safety seminar, among other requirements. Depending on their license, most owners could possess up to 15 handguns, rifles and shotguns (collectors are allowed more than 15). Licenses were issued for as long as 10 years.

That’s better than what many countries have in place, though the gun laws would be some of the most restrictive in the nation if any U.S. state adopted them. In fact, there are several conditions that simply wouldn’t fly with our Second Amendment rights, including the ban on carrying a firearm in the months before Election Day. 

The Philippines House of Representatives has passed a bill that would offer up some substantial changes benefiting gun owners, though the moves show just how far the country has to go before keeping and bearing arms would be treated as a right. 

Under the approved bill, gun bans are shortened from six months to only 45 days before elections and five days after the polls. 

The limit on purchase of ammunition was raised from 50 to 500 rounds for non-sport shooters and up to 5,000 rounds for sport shooters.

Under the same bill, the permit to carry validity has been extended from two to five years, while the validity of firearms business licenses was also extended from five to 10 years.

If the bill becomes law, Filipino gun owners could conceivably have better carry laws (at least in some respects) than those found in California, where permits are only good for two years, and cost $2,000 to acquire in some counties. Of course, not even California imposes a total ban on carrying firearms for the 45 days before an election, much less the six-month ban that’s already in place. 

And while California imposes background checks on ammunition sales and prohibits residents from buying ammo in states like Arizona and Nevada and bringing it home with them, it doesn’t limit the number of bullets someone can possess before they’re committing a crime… at least not yet. 

Most of us would chafe having to live under the revised set of rules approved by the Philippine House, much less the laws that are currently in place. I’m heartened to see that things seem to be improving for gun owners in that country, but learning more about what they go through makes me even more committed to defending our right to keep and bear arms and resist the efforts to turn it into a privilege.