More Innocent Victims - You Can Help

More Innocent Victims, You Can Help

The United Nations Conference on Small Arms and Light Weapons, July 2012 New York

All of us who care about animals and their welfare do so out of personal compassion as well as a sense of justice regarding their abuse and exploitation.  Simply stated, ‘we care’ for the marginalized on this planet.  No one who has compassion for the lowly animals who are unable to speak for, or defend, themselves can fail to be moved by a phenomenon called “child soldiers”.  Just as we feel the need to protect innocent animals, so also are we moved to compassion by innocent children forced against their will to be soldiers.

According to UN statistics, there are several hundred thousand child soldiers in the world today – both boys and girls – on every continent of the globe.  Some are as young as 5 years old.  They are forced to witness murders and rapes, often of their own relatives.    Child soldiers are possible because of the easy availability of small arms and light weapons. 

Small arms and light weapons kill more people than any other weapon for war and were the only weapons used in 47 of 49 conflicts in the 1990’s.  At least 300,000 lives are lost every year to SALW violence, more than 1,000 deaths a day.  Yearly another one million people are injured, often permanently, and countless more are traumatized.

Small arms are designed for one person, and light weapons are designed to be used by a crew of several people.  Small arms include revolvers, self-loading pistols, submachine guns, and light machine guns.  Light weapons include heavy machine guns, portable anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, and mortars of less than 100 mm calibers, shells, missiles, grenades, and landmines.  

There are currently 640 million guns in the world; eight million more are produce annually.  This is enough to equip one in every ten people on the planet.  Ten to 14 billion rounds of ammunition are produced annually, enough to shoot every person in the world twice.  The majority of guns are in the hands of civilians (60%), outnumbering those held by armed forces and governments.

The widespread availability and misuse of SALW, particularly in regions of internal conflict and civil war, poses a serious threat to regional security and stability, causes human suffering particularly to women and children – the most vulnerable in society, and creates human rights violations such as rape.  SALWs are the main cause of food emergencies, forced displacement, and denial of access to health care, they cause negative economic consequences, as well as making it possible for children to be forced to become child soldiers.  

The United Nations is involved in many different ways in the effort to reduce the proliferation of small arms and their deadly effects. Its  Program of Action includes the International Tracing Instrument and recommendations on arms brokering. According to Amnesty International, there are more regulations on bananas than guns.

The United States is one of the main supply sources for small arms and light weapons.  Although it is unlikely that manufacturers will stop producing them, it is important that safeguards be in place foster accountability.   Tracking is not legally required, but morally imperative, especially when the most vulnerable members of society are at risk as child soldiers. 

Please contact your elected officials to discuss the problem of gun proliferation and suggest that the elected officials sponsor and support weapon tracking programs.  Help keep children from being used as child soldiers.  

The United Nations will hold a Conference on Small Arms and Light Weapons from July 2 to July 27, 2012 at the UN Headquarters in New York.