This article reported by Ho Kit Yen first appeared on FMT. Image above is sourced from FMT.

PETALING JAYA: A criminologist has urged police to take action against the owner of the shotgun from which pellets hit a 12-year-old girl in Pokok Sena, Kedah, on Sunday.

P Sundramoorthy, an associate professor at Universiti Sains Malaysia, told FMT there was “apparent negligence” in the management of the gun.

The girl, Nur Syahida Bakar, suffered injuries on her arm, head, chest, legs and right shoulder after being hit by 13 pellets. She was inside the kitchen in her home during the incident.

Two men went to the house to apologise. They are neighbours of the girl’s family. One of them was holding the shotgun. They said they were hunting birds.

Police have arrested the two and confiscated the gun. One of them is a son of the gun’s owner, whom police questioned and released. Police said he did not know his son had borrowed the gun.

Sundramoorthy said the owner had full responsibility for his gun. “He should have kept his gun in a secured place. Nobody besides him should have access to it.”

He also said the two bird hunters had committed a serious offence.

“It is a violation of our Firearms Act, even if there was no malice,” he said. “What were they doing near someone’s home for the purpose of bird hunting?”

He asked whether they were shooting in a horizontal direction.

Another criminologist from Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kamal Affandi Hashim, said the gun owner could lose his licence for failure to take care of his weapon.

“The gun owner is the one who has the permit and he is the only one allowed to carry the gun and use it,” he said. “Failure to take responsibility for gun care is an offence under the Arms Act.”

Mohammad Rahim Kamaluddin, a criminologist teaching at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, said there was a need to increase public awareness of the dangers posed by firearms.

“We have very strict gun control laws here, but the public’s knowledge is low,” he said. “They may not know the consequences of using a shotgun without proper licensing.”

In Malaysia, the three laws related to gun control are the Arms Act, Firearms Act and Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971.