Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence 2009

 

Like each year, the 2009 Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence, 15-21 June, is an invitation to raise awareness and push for tighter laws on guns and the global arms trade. 

 

According to the Small Arms Survey, small arms are not only responsible for the majority of deaths in armed conflicts, but they are also used in about 40 percent of homicides worldwide. This situation is also of concern to the World Council of Churches' Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV), who encourages people around the globe to challenge the growing militarization worldwide, especially the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. 

 

A 2005 DOV Report on World Military Spending states that "while there is much talk about preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the majority of violent deaths each year are caused by small arms and light weapons".  

 

Last year, members of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) network organized activities to highlight "he human cost of small arms proliferation and misuse" in more than 85 countries. According to IANSA, they also asked "governments to enact policies that put their citizens’ security first". A list of activities in 2008 can be found on the IANSA website. 

 

The Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence is an initiative of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), of which the World Council of Churches (WCC) has been a member since the network's creation in 1998. 

 

More on the Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence 2009

 

International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA)

 

DOV Report on World Military Spending (2005)

 

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