‘We love guns’: school shooting exposes reality of Philippine crisis

Monday’s school shooting in the Philippines that killed three students and injured dozens has highlighted the decades-long problem of gun proliferation in the country, easy access to weapons despite theoretically strict laws – and Filipinos’ fascination with firearms.One shocking issue that emerged after videos of the shooting were posted online was the quantity of bullets fired and the teenaged shooters’ seeming familiarity with weapons. Officers recovered 21 fired cartridge cases, seven lead fragments of fired bullets, 13 cartridges, two deformed fired bullets, three fired bullets, one empty magazine and one misfired cartridge, the Philippine National Police (PNP) told This Week in Asia on Friday.In a press briefing on Monday, PNP spokesman Police Colonel Allen Rae Co, said a 9mm pistol was recovered from the 14-year-old suspect while a .38 calibre revolver was taken from the 15-year-old. Co said the revolver had been traced to a security agency all the way in Cebu City, some 240km (150 miles) from Tacloban.