Armed violence-casualties : what lessons can we learn?

There is a co-relation between political atmosphere and rate of crime - Prof. Ravindra Fernando

By Indeewara Thilakarathne

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The research which was sponsored by South Asian Small Arms Network (Sri Lanka), among other factors, has focused on the use of firearms and their effects in Sri Lanka and how general political atmosphere and associated and relevant factors that have a bearing on the use of fire arms.

It analyses whether the criminals tend to use more sophisticated weaponry in times of social unrest and unstable political atmosphere than in times of political stability and the use of fire arms for suicidal purposes. He pointed out that one of the important aspects of firearm related mortality was to determine the number of deaths associated with the use of firearms.

In this respect, the outcome of the shooting is not only determined by the type of weapons used but also the person and circumstances under which it is used.

The study published in the British Medical Journal in 1999 titled “Mortality associated with use of weapons in armed conflicts, war time atrocities, and civilian mass shooting” stated that during the fighting in a war the number of people wounded is, at least, twice the number killed and may be 13 times as higher than in normal times.

This is resulting from the impact of weapons systems on human being particularly in the context of war. However, the “wounded to killed” ration has been lower than 1 or 0 when firearms are used against immobilized people in a confined space or in a position where they could not defend themselves against such attack.

The study concluded that mortality from firearms depends not only on the technology of the weapons or ammunition but also on the context in which they are used. The study also explores the widespread belief that the use of firearms was sensitive to the political atmosphere at a given times.

Analyzing the available corpus of statistics in Sri Lanka the study revealed that in 1980 the percentage of using firearms was just 5 per cent which is the lowest recorded since 1979 and that the percentage gradually increased to 45 per cent and 47 per cent in 1988 and in 1989 respectively.

It states that in 1994 and 1995, the percentage of using firearms for committing crimes decreased to 14 per cent and once again, on the increase from 2001 to 2005 (from 35 per cent to 25 per cent).

There was a dramatic increase in the use of firearms in 1983 (approximately 80 per cent increase). This was mainly due to the 1983 July riots and 1988 JVP insurgency.

The statistics clearly showed a correlation between the prevailing political atmosphere and the rate of crime using firearms. It established beyond doubt that political will at the highest level and policies for the creation of peace environment is extremely important to contain gun violence in the country.

Prof. Ravindra Fernando emphasised the fact that over the last three decades weapons of choice for committing crime has shifted from shot gun to sophisticated weapons (use of sophisticated weapons increased from zero in 1979 to 69 per cent in 1995) principally due to the steady supply of illegal weapons from conflict areas in the north and east to non-conflict areas in the south.

The use of automatic weapons for homicide was gradually increased up to 48 per cent in 1987 and to 69 per cent in 1992.

However, a substantial decrease in both the actual number and percentage of use of sophisticated weapons in committing crimes could be witnessed with Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) which came into operation. It has once again, reaffirmed the fact that political atmosphere has an impact on the use of firearms.

The research further established the fact that although the government declared a gun amnesty from October 1,2004 to November 30, 2004, it did not yield desired outcomes and by and largely failed to arrest the negative trend of increasing use of small arms and the amount of weapons in the circulation.

This resulted from many factors such as insufficient rewards for the surrendered firearms, not enough man power to launch a successful search operation following the gun amnesty and lack of public cooperation for the search operation. The study pointed out with regard to suicide, though Sri Lanka has the highest rate of suicides, the use of firearms for committing suicide remains around one percent.

However, there is a correlation between availability of firearms and the risk of suicides. Unlike in other countries such as in USA, Sri Lanka’s policy of not allowing home gun ownership has, by and large, contributed to maintain the present position of low usage of firearms in suicides.

The research concluded that restricting the gun availability will decrease suicide rates considerably. Further it has been recommended that health care professional should pay special attention to people suffering from depression in general and persons belonging to armed forces who are suffering from depression in particular in order to avoid a tragedy and to consider the issue of small arms as avoidable public heath problem which causes considerable amount of death annually.