MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Santiago residents have increasing number of firearms for protection

According to the latest study on citizen security, families in the Talagante borough of the Santiago de Chile Metropolitan Region have the highest number of firearms for protection.

The study, conducted by the Chilean National Institute of Statistics (INE), revealed that around 10% of Talagante’s households have guns for security-purposes.

According to the INE, 29.1% of Talagante homes were victims of a crime in 2008. Talagante is a rural sector with many large, spread-out properties and wide open spaces. There are over 40 properties larger than 5,000 square meters. In February, the owner of one such property, Santa Magdalena, was shot by intruders.

“It is self-defence [to have a gun],” said Gonzalo Anguita, who lives in a home neighbouring the Santa Magdalena estate. Chilean businessman Andres Llorente also had a problem with delinquents on his Talagante property in February. He was assaulted in his home while entertaining dinner guests and did not have time to find and use his gun.

“If you live in Santiago, you don’t need a pistol at all,” he said. “But here you have very open spaces so it is more practical to have a shotgun and to use it even to shoot into the air as a precautionary measure.”

“But having enough time to use it against five intruders is a different thing,” he said.

Talagante Mayor Raul Leiva acknowledged that crime was a problem and that measures such as introducing more security cameras, better lighting in rural areas, neighbourhood watch services and a new police station would be taken.

Other boroughs with high percentages of gun possession for protection were Vitacura (8.8), Ancud (8.1), Melipilla (7.8), La Cisterna (7.1) and Constitution (7.1).

The study showed that the Las Condes borough in uptown Santiago had the highest proportion of guns overall, with almost 20% of households in possession of a firearm.

However, the reason for possession in the majority of cases is not protection or security, but for hunting or collection purposes.

“I believe that the possession of registered firearms in completely legitimate,” said Francisco de la Maza, mayor of Las Condes.

He also said that guns only become a problem when they are unregistered, or when they are used to commit crimes. The highest rate of gun possession in households after Las Condes were in Penco (15.4), Cauqeunes (13.4), Quilpue (13.3) and Melipilla (13.2) (Santiago Times)