Posted on 05/16/2006 1:08:09 PM PDT by holymoly
GUN violence is a global epidemic that kills an estimated 1000 people a day and stronger international controls on the sale and movement of arms are needed, a report released today said.
"If 1000 people a day were dying of avian flu, the world would sit up and take notice," said the report, published by IANSA, a group of agencies including Amnesty International and Oxfam.
The report was released ahead of the United Nations Small Arms Review Conference, a summit of world leaders to discuss arms legislation that is held every five years and meets in New York next month.
Gun violence, and the heavy toll it takes of human lives, is being ignored, IANSA director Rebecca Peters told reporters.
IANSA estimates that there are about 640 million small arms in the world, 59 per cent of them in the hands of civilians.
As many as 1.8 million people have been shot dead since the last UN review in 2001, it said.
The report said the problem was especially bad in developing countries, where easy access to guns, combined with widespread poverty, often created a lethal situation.
Ms Peters urged the United Nations to impose global regulations on arms distribution and set minimum guidelines for national rules on gun control.
"The conference must stop looking at this in such a fragmented way," she said.
The report recommended international cooperation to control the sale and transfer of firearms.
"The availability and misuse of guns, the high firearm death rates in many parts of the world and the means by which guns are spread around the world, are aspects of a common global problem - the uncontrolled proliferation of small arms," it said.
The perception that there is a difference between legal and illegal weapons is a dangerous fallacy, the report said.
Large numbers of firearms were manufactured legally, then stolen or bought illegally - yet little was done when an arms shipment went missing.
"It should be that when guns move into illegal hands, an alarm should go off," said Ms Peters.
Make that a"Blue"one!!!
That's right,while those UN A**HOLES are at it they should ban "IEDs"and"Suicide Bombers"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's right!The Enviro-Wackos should make firearms more available to the peoples of the world so that they can more quickly kill each other off and rid Mother Earth of the infestation of mankind!!!!!!!!!!
RIGHT ON!The first sight of a"Blue Helmet"in my vicinity and"The Rules of Engagement"are triggered!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Eat me, I'm a jellybean.
So the plan here is to outlaw war?
This is why we shouldn't let the UN become a world government.
According to THE BLACK BOOK OF COMMUNISM, the total was in excess of 100 million over a period of about 70 years. That comes to over 3900 a day. Of course that doesn't include Saddam Hussein or any African tyrants.
I wonder how the UN would be able to enforce such a rule on a soverign nation ... unless a Kerry-like person was president ... but then, millions of guns would go underground ...
Thanks- "Guns Facts" is a good site to cite.
Maybe if they put us all in padded cells in straight-jackets we would all be OK. No sharp objects, no guns.
Don't forget to outlaw physicians on the grounds of "accidental deaths". You know, those that "just shouldn't happen, at all". They kill far more people accidentally than firearms do.
Hmmm....Or perhaps its all the scalpels fault???...
Gah.
Thank God I live here.
"Damn, I'm poor. Oh, look -- a gun! I guess I'll go shoot somebody."
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