PROVINCIAL Police Director Isagani Nerez’es quick answer to the Provincial Governor’s order for a total gun ban in Pangasinan is, as widely expected, the setting up of checkpoints on the road and body searches or frisking of persons in such frequented spots as video-oke bars and nightclubs. It is supposed, and perhaps quite correctly so, that the probability of armed customers being present in such places of entertainment is high.

A report said two members of a gun-for-hire gang were caught at a video-oke joint in Sual last week precisely in implementation of the gun ban. Let us pray that more such pre-emptive operations against such armed individuals or groups roaming in our midst earn similar good results in the coming days so that peace-loving citizens would be relatively safe from those nasty “stray bullets” when guns suddenly start barking.

On the matter of checkpoints to give teeth to the campaign against the unauthorized carrying of firearms outside residence however, we are quite concerned it could give rise to the misimpression ours is a province in grip of terror.

The sheer inconvenience and anxiety it gives to motorists especially those traveling at night and are stopped at various points in their trip by policemen shining their flashlights on vehicle and occupants like these were some laboratory specimens getting the once-over from scientists – or even being asked to alight for further and closer inspection if so suspected by an over-eager cop – makes for a strong argument against martial measures employed in times of peace.

We have, we must state, generally an abiding trust in our authorities tasked to man checkpoints. As Nerez raspily points out, they are professionals and well-briefed on manners. But even granting that such a road search is conducted with utmost courtesy and dispatch, it still does not detract from the fact that it impairs citizens’ right to travel undisturbed and uninterrupted by state functionaries.

Armed lawless elements, the kind being targeted by the Espino gun ban, after all – and by instinct of survival – shun or skirt these checkpoints altogether. None of them, to be sure, would be so stupid as to foolishly walk into one knowing he’s illegally “loaded.” This means that it is the lawful, legal, authorized gunholder among civilians that gets to suffer the inconvenience of a random inspection.

There must be a better way for the cops to show they mean business in securing the gentler part of the public