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Home Ministry wants standard manual on firearms use

Monday, 10 October 2011 10:21am

©The Sun Daily (Used by permission)
by Marhalim Abas

PETALING JAYA (Oct 9, 2011): The Home Ministry is mulling the introduction of a standard manual on the use of firearms for its agencies that issue weapons for its personnel.

The proposed manual will cover all aspects of firearms handling from training and standard operating procedures to the rules of engagement.

With the manual, personnel issued with firearms will have to strictly follow the rules and regulations or find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

TheSun learnt that the ministry is considering the move even as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is set to introduce its own firearm manual for its officers.

The MACC manual, among others, emphasises that firearms issued to personnel is strictly for self-defence purposes only.

The MACC will likely be the first law enforcement agency in the country to come up with such a manual as even the police have yet to have a comprehensive written SOP as it mostly relies on the Inspector-General of Police's Standing Order (IGSO).

TheSun was informed that the police is however expected to be exempted from adopting the proposed SOP as its rules of engagement and the use of lethal force are different from the other agencies in the ministry.

Apart from the police, other agencies within the Home Ministry which issues firearms to its personnel are tje Immigration, Rela and Prisons departments.

Sources informed theSun that the MACC manual was formulated last year when the commission started issuing Glock G26 semi-automatic pistols for its officers.

The G26 pistol, popularly known as the 'Baby Glock' because of its small dimensions, can take a 10-round magazine and is easily concealed under the clothing.

It was however unclear why the MACC has delayed adopting the manual but it was believed that some of the provisions had legal implications.

It was however understood that the manual was formulated after the MACC found that its officers had not been trained properly to use the pistols for self-defence scenarios as their initial training is conducted by the police and the military.

"Although the police and military trainers were competent, their skill sets are not relevant for the MACC officers as policemen and soldiers uses firearms offensively and their rules of engagement are different for those using weapons for self-defence only," a source said.

The source said this is because while policemen and soldiers are trained for " kill or be killed situations," MACC personnel are not expected "to shoot their way in to catch a suspect".

Hence, he said more important than good marksmanship and safe gun handling, their training must underscore the self-defence concept.

It is learnt that under the new SOP, MACC officers must go through a qualification process to show he or she, is able to handle a gun competently and safely before the pistol is issued.

Those issued with firearms need to re-qualify annually to continue using their weapons. Those who failed the re-qualification will have to return firearms, until he or she regains qualification.

Annual re-qualification for firearms are routine for international law enforcement agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), UK police and the US Secret Service.

TheSun learnt that currently, handgun training for MACC officers take five days during which the officers are briefed on the technical details of the Glock pistol, and are taught to fire it from various positions -- standing, sitting, on the knees and prone.

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