GUNS, HOMICIDE, & UNITED NATIONS RHETORIC
By Howard Nemerov
July 23, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
Guns cause violence and death, so the experts say. For example; the Small Arms Survey, an internationally-respected source of gun violence research, states:
The proliferation of small arms and light weapons represents a grave threat to human security. The unchecked spread of these weapons has exacerbated inter- and intra-state conflicts, contributed to human rights violations, undermined political and economic development, destabilized communities, and devastated the lives of millions of people.[1]
Small Arms Survey’s calls its ideal gun control program “Practical Disarmament:”
In its most basic form, practical disarmament consists of a combination of legal reforms to regulate civilian firearms licensing and ownership and technical interventions to collect and destroy retrieved or surplus weapons.
After disarming “combatants from warring groups in armed conflict, the second part of the “surplus weapons” removal consists of reducing civilian firearms inventories:
By way of contrast, voluntary weapons reduction and destruction programmes are often introduced later on and are designed to reduce civilian arms possession.[2]
Small Arms Survey partners with international gun control organizations––such as The International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA)––in formulating international gun control programs.[3] Rebecca Peters director of IANSA, links the reduction of “gun violence” to the recent United Nations agreement to control illicit trafficking in small arms:
Today’s agreement is a significant step forward for the international effort to tackle the illicit gun trade. Gun violence is a global problem that can only be tackled if all countries work together, with common guidelines across the world.[4]
IANSA stated that during this UN meeting: “At least 5000 people have been shot dead worldwide during the 5 days of negotiations, illustrating the severity and scope of the problem.”[5]
In 1999, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated:
Even in societies not beset by civil war, the easy availability of small arms has in many cases contributed to violence and political instability. These, in turn, have damaged development prospects and imperilled human security in every way.[6]
With the wide-spread promotion of this “guns cause violence and death” premise, it seems reasonable to conclude there should be a correlation between increased civilian firearms inventory and a violent crime indicator such as homicide rates revealed by examining data sets compiled by the United Nations and the Small Arms Inventory.
Between 2003 and 2007, Small Arms Survey (SAS) reported estimated levels of civilian firearms inventories for various regions around the world.[7] The European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics – 2006, published under the auspices of the Council of Europe, reported crime data for the greater European region (from Russia to United Kingdom) for the years 2000-2003. The research group “included several members involved in recent UN [crime] surveys” who helped develop their approach to compiling crime data.[8] One category was “Intentional homicide: Completed.” The latest (2003) values will be used here.[9] (All rates expressed as offenses per 100,000 population.)
Collating Sourcebook data with SAS firearms per capita data, an interesting and strong trend appears: Higher levels of civilian firearms ownership correlates with lower levels of intentional homicide, and countries with the highest civilian firearms ownership averaged a far lower homicide rate. Table 1 contains firearms and homicide rates for the 22 countries contained in both publications.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (ODC) used different survey methods to compile a broader dataset for the years 1998-2000. The ODC’s “Total recorded intentional homicide, completed” category was collated (because of missing data, 1999 was used) with the SAS firearms data, resulting in 42 countries contained in both publications. (See Table 2)
In this dataset, the UN’s premise that more guns leads to more violent crime is almost demonstrated, except for the fact that countries with the most civilian firearms average over a 40% lower homicide rate than the next-best group. Moreover, when sorted by homicide rate, countries in the highest homicide rate quartile all have below-average rates of civilian firearms ownership.[10]
The top quartile in Table 1 contains all western European countries, and the top quartile in Table 2 contains 8 of 11 countries considered to be developed western economies. These data contradict Annan’s assertion that firearms “damaged development prospects and imperilled human security” and the SAS assertion that firearms availability “undermined political and economic development.” As for IANSA’s insinuation that civilian firearms kill 1,000 people per day, only a few victims live in countries with the highest rates of civilian firearms ownership. At the very least, the UN’s own report shows that other factors play a larger role in homicide rates than firearms availability.
This begs the questions: In what countries are the victims and who owns the firearms there? Are civilian firearms owners committing all the homicides or are the killers’ “small arms” really military weapons which are already banned from civilian possession? And most importantly: Why aren’t the “experts” acknowledging their own data?
Endnotes:
1-
The Small Arms Survey in brief, Small Arms Survey.
2-
Practical Disarmament, Small Arms Survey.
3-
Research Partners, Small Arms Survey.
4-
Landslide vote sets UN gun talks back on track, International
Action Network on Small Arms.
5-
Ibid.
6-
Kofi Annan, Statement of the Security Council, Sept. 24, 1999, U.N.
Press Release SG/SM/7145, SC/6733.
7-
Data can be retrieved by downloading Chapter 2 from SAS Yearbooks for
years 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2007 at the SAS Publications page.
8-
Martin Killias et al, European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal
Justice Statistics – 2006, Ministry of Justice, Research
and Documentation Centre, June 2006, page 14.
9-
Ibid, page 40.
10-
All datasets compiled into Excel workbook: email request for copy.
