EDITORIAL - Conscience, not tape, can keep the guns silent

At around this time of the year, police units all over the country go through the ritual of taping the muzzles of their sidearms in an elaborate display of resolve not to fire them in Christmas revelry. As everyone knows, though, that is an exercise in futility. It is not the taping of gun muzzles that will stop this deadly practice but the sense of responsibility that every policeman ought to equip himself with along with his gun.

This is not to say that only policemen fire their guns in revelry during Christmas. In fact, they probably represent only a very small percentage of criminally irresponsible revelers who do so every year with disastrous effect. But only the policemen are available to act out this display of uselessness. The far greater number of people who delight in firing their guns is unknown and, therefore, unavailable to participate in the ritual.

And even if they are found, it is doubtful if they would even allow their guns to be taped or, if they would, whether that would be the end of it since they could have other guns tucked away in secret. Which brings us back to the police, who really have no escape from this. Again, and for the same reason, taping guns is a useless exercise because the police themselves may have other guns other than the officially issued ones.

The police can opt to carry on with this ritual year after year. Or it can stop the charade once and for all and ponder on more practical and positive means to stop indiscriminate firing of guns during the Christmas revelries. One are it might want to consider in a more aggressive manner is serious talk. Tapes will never stop a person without a conscience, be he a policeman or a civilian.

But an earnest talk might. Of course there is no guarantee that even the most persuasive speaker can dent an unreceptive conscience. But at least one thing is certain -- even the shortest talk has a far greater chance of reaching out and touching base with a conscience than a shipload of tape ever will. If talk takes effect, not only will a taped gun never be fired, so will a lot of others that have never been taped.

In case the police, or those who have authority and supervision over them, ever need to know one thing, there are different ways to make talking very effective. It may not even have to be done by a fellow police officer. It can be done by others not in uniform. There are priests to do that, or fathers and mothers, wives. Even their own children.

What is important is that the message gets across in a convincing way. There is a need to make people with guns understand that guns should be used responsibly and should never be fired for fun and in revelry. There is a need to persuade people that once fired, there is no recalling a bullet. That once fired, it will always hit something, and that something could be a human being, which then defeats the purpose of celebrating.