Friday morning in South Jakarta saw a confrontation between a motorist and a motor cyclist climax with the motorist brandishing a handgun. The car driver, Fadhil Satria, brandished an FN revolver with 12 bullets. The gun has been registered previously but has been unregistered since 11 September 2007. Generally, gun owners have six months after a gun license expires to renew the license. If a license is not renewed then it is an obligation on the gun owners to hand in their weapons to police.
By all accounts the alleged bumper bash did not actually happen according to the Head of the South Jakarta Traffic division, Commander Pamudji, said there was no evidence that the vehicle and the motor cycle came to blows.
It is being reported that in May this year there were 7,798 guns registered but some 3,446 of these were with licenses that had expired. This is a case of laziness and arrogance in the extreme as the process for renewing a license is nothing more than filling in a form at the police station.
The National Police figures show that between January and March this year there were 479 crimes involving guns. This is an increase of almost 25% from the same period last year.
The increase in gun crime is alarming and the fact that road rage incidents are now including guns is also a scary development.
Road rage at any time has the potential to be dramatic and fatal but when guns are added into this mix then the potential for fatalities increases dramatically. Hopefully, these road rage incidents will not develop into other road related violence like car jackings.
6 comments:
FNP-45, Niceeeeeeeee. Bit heavy, and a fair kick, but niceeee
oppps sorry.....
Damn awful that the public should carry such a dreadful weapon!!
(polar bear wonders: how many poor buggers die each day because Indoesians dont take REAL driving tests, dont obey traffic rules, dont have roadworthy cars etc, and how many get shot.......)
PB...
As always keeping it real!
I wonder too! I look at the big signs on the side of the roads (normally toll roads) and the figures always seem so low in comparison to the figures I read in the paper.
Driving tests would be one way to reduce traffic congestion. Simply, not many Indonesians would pass the first time around. But then again money talks and bullshit walks. I would reckon the right "fee" would get you your cornflakes license no worries at all!
Traffic rules -- yeah right! The only rule is anything goes until you get caught then it is 50K.
Roadworthy cars -- there are probably more road worthy cars than unroadworthy cars...thanks to easy credit.
Plenty of people get shot -- read quality papers like Lampu Merah and Pos Kota to get a sampling of the numbers of people biting the bullet!
As always though, point taken! As a percentage the figures I quote are suggesting only a very small proportion of the population own guns!
I dunno Rob. i once looked out of the car window on one of those dreadful wet days, and looked at the tyres on the truck next to me. not only bald, but ther canvas was showing. Easy credit doesnt extend to tyres I guess....
Nah...I do not think that it does. I was not necessarily trying to link easy credit to tyres but rather to new cars...
Nevertheless, point taken on the roadworthy tyres angle!
Despite having owned many guns, shot competitively at club level with a 9mm pistol, shot for the army team in tri-service competitions, and carried a rifle as a soldier. I still hate guns.
There is no going back when the trigger is pulled. Doing so needs considerable reflection and thought. Pulling one out in the heat of the moment is never a good idea.
Heat of the moment in a hot and humid metropolis like Jakarta is always a problem!
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