International Self-Defense-Jakarta: Handgun for self defense :: 06/27/2015

This refers to an article titled “Suspect caught in US Afro-American church ‘hate crime’ rampage,” (The Jakarta Post Online/Agence France-Presse, June 19).

According to statistics in my hometown around 75 to 80 percent of people own a handgun for self defense.

Gun crimes are virtually unknown though and the general crime rate is very low — probably also due to the fact that possible criminals (e.g. home invaders) know that they might meet death if the home owner defends himself, his property and his family.

Now, the right to self defense and to be able to protect property is a constitutional right of every citizen of my country and as such every adult citizen can apply for a gun license, which needs around two weeks to be approved.

It needs to be ensured that the owner of such a license has no prior convictions, no history of violence, etc. and of course there are certain important safeguards — as owned guns can only be used for self-defense, magazines/ammunition need to be stored separately from the gun itself and the handgun can only be accessed and used by adults as described above.

Now in Indonesia I feel at times slightly vulnerable since my Indonesian wife and I are basically not allowed to own a gun and are therefore technically not able to protect ourselves, our children or our property efficiently.

Crime-rates are relatively high (in particular in cities) and the only ones who are meant to protect my family, my property and myself are the police. Unfortunately, I cannot rely on them and I should be able to protect myself from crime.

I do not see that the police are able to do even their most basic duties that they are meant to do as a law enforcement agency.

Now of course there are ways but those are all on the edge of legality (e.g. pay for private security - which still does not guarantee safety), own certain semi-illegal tools as for example a collapsible baton (only good for close-distance defense) or get your hands on an illegal weapon.

Gordon Freeman
Jakarta

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/27/your-letters-handgun-self-defense.html