BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines—Toy guns had always been commonplace in any young lad’s toy chest but the makebelieve never did shoot real bullets, never did kill until today.
The recent and 10th shooting incident in the lone district involved two teens and a makeshift firearm, referred to by authorities as a pin gun.
The suspect, a 16 year-old, took the life of 17 year-old Eduardo Gabriel Garaga, his fellow rugby user in front of the Gaisano City Mall using a .45 caliber bullet shot from his pin gun.
According to authorities at Police Station 8, pin guns are crafted from fragments of steel pipes tied together with industrial rubber bands—only one bullet can be inserted in the gun’s supposed barrel.
Bacolod City councilor and gun enthusiast Al Victor Espino tells DNX that pin guns are one of the most primitive type of firearms but the hardest to detect.
“It consists only of a pipe, a spring, and a firing pin to activate the primer of a bullet,” Espino shared.
Though crude, the Chairperson of the City Council Committee on Police Matters added that the said gun is “very effective” when fired.
A pin gun fires when the barrel is cocked in reverse and the intended trigger is pulled.
Espino further expressed that pin guns run rampant among inmates inside jailhouses.
The killing transpired two weeks after the gunban was lifted in the country.
