T

he police revealed on Tuesday that most guns used in armed robberies were homemade.

City police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said that 98 percent of the guns confiscated from robbery suspects were homemade and that most of them were made by air rifle makers.

'€œWe are now tracing the air rifle makers who produce the homemade guns used in crimes,'€ he said.

He added that the police had confiscated evidence such as raw materials for guns from an air rifle workshop which received orders to make homemade guns in Cipacing, Bandung, West Java.

'€œAir rifle makers are tempted to take orders to make guns because they receive higher profits,'€ Rikwanto said.

He added that the police found that the makers not only sold the homemade guns but also rented them out to those who required them.

'€œIt'€™s not easy to track the distribution because they don'€™t bear specific characteristics that can tell us where they come from. We will try to derive more information from the air rifle-making equipment we have confiscated in Cipacing to find more air rifle makers who are taking orders to produce homemade guns,'€ he said.

Chief detective Adj. Sr. Comr. Herry Heryawan said that homemade guns were sold for between Rp 4 million (US$411) and Rp 5 million with another Rp 1 million for the bullets.

He said that from January to April 2013, there were 35 armed robberies and 23 of them involved the use of guns.

'€œTwenty nine out of these 35 cases have been solved and the police are still working to solve the remaining cases,'€ he said.

He said that the police needed the support of citizens to report any activity they saw involving guns or if they knew someone who was involved in making homemade weapons in their
neighborhoods.

'€œWe have not yet found any workshops that produce homemade weapons in Jakarta, but we encourage all Jakarta residents to report any information about gun-making activity in their neighborhoods,'€ Herry said. (hrl)