Gun article from across the pond
Via Chuck comes this BBC article on guns in Africa:
There is one weapon in circulation for every 20 people in Africa, according to a report released on Tuesday.
The 2003 edition of the Small Arms Survey, a report by the Geneva-based organisation of the same name, says about 30 million light weapons are in circulation in sub-Saharan Africa.
This, the report says, is far fewer than previous estimates have suggested.
Okay, I’ll buy that there are guns for 5% of the population (1/20). The interesting part is this:
The unchecked spread of small weapons has exacerbated African inter-state conflicts, contributed to human rights violations, undermined political and economic development, destabilised communities and devastated the lives of millions of people.
It seems to me that most of the rights violations come from the governments, not the unchecked spread of weapons, but I digress. The article associates number of weapons with the atrocities mentioned above. For reference, in 1997 (the last year I have found data for) there were 230 million guns in the US (I’m also fairly certain there are a number of guns not registered, so I’d put that number a bit higher). There are roughly 300 million of us. There are enough guns for 77% of our population. Yet, we lack the problems mentioned above at least in terms of degree.
It seems to me the problem may be cultural, economic, or political instead of one that can be blamed on objects. Of course, my math could be off.
September 26th, 2003 at 12:09 pm
Something they missed, either through ignorance or through ignorance: every “famine” in Africa, for well over the past 100 years or so, is due to people with guns preventing people without guns from eating. Forced relocations to places without food, armed theft of relief food supplies, etc.
David Reiff has done some very good work on this topic.
September 29th, 2003 at 1:40 am
African thugocracies abound.
October 2nd, 2003 at 6:48 am
Volunteer Tailgate Party: Vol. XII
Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls of all ages. I present to you a snapshot of life in the Volunteer Blogosphere: Newsrack Blog “Virtues of their own? Eugene Genovese and the Slaveholding South” A long post about a review by…
October 2nd, 2003 at 6:51 am
Volunteer Tailgate Party: Vol. XII
Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls of all ages. I present to you a snapshot of life in the Volunteer Blogosphere: Newsrack Blog “Virtues of their own? Eugene Genovese and the Slaveholding South” A long post about a review by…
October 3rd, 2003 at 1:07 am
Volunteer Tailgate Party: Vol. XII
Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls of all ages. I present to you a snapshot of life in the Volunteer Blogosphere: Newsrack Blog “Virtues of their own? Eugene Genovese and the Slaveholding South” A long post about a review by…