Guns not necessary to maintain law, order

Letters

I NOTICED in the other daily, it was mentioned that the public could suggest to the Police Commissioner Gari Baki as to which guns police should take around with them when doing their duties.
I think that suggestion will have people looking down the wrong end of the issue.
The issue here is not the presence of guns but the need to get rid of them.
That is right. Get rid of the guns and prohibit all civilians from carrying around knives – all sorts of knives.
(Laws must be devised to ban people walking around with bus knives, kitchen knives or pocket knives too.)
During the Fifa U-20 Women’s World Cup, all the police officers on duty were without guns, possibly as per requirements by Fifa.
That is the way to go – at least in the main cities and centres in the nation. (Those areas prone to tribal fights where locals use firearms fall into another category.) We do not need guns to police the street. The majority of the people are not criminals.
In PNG we have for a long time equated the presence of guns in the hands of police officers as the only way law and order would be emphasized.
I have lived in a Micronesian nation for two years and on most days when the police officers are on duty, none of them possesses a firearm.
I also notice that on the streets of Noumea, in New Caledonia, the reserve police who walk the streets in pairs or threes do not carry guns.
Even the police officers who attend to law and order issues within the city do not carry guns – they only have radios and police batons, as well as handcuffs.
The unit that carries guns only goes out upon receiving reports of people using firearms in a protest – or where there is life-threatening violence.
Otherwise, guns possessed by the police force are almost never seen by the public passing through the main streets of the city of Noumea.
That I believe is the way to go to.
Police in urban centres in PNG must not think that the implementation of law and order can only be meaningfully effected with an M16 or shotgun.
Please, police officers, take note. Your constant presence in your uniform is enough to send the message to most people that law and order must be maintained.
 
Pro Peace and Order
Port Moresby