MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union

MISSING PIECES
their policy and removed a large number of small arms from the homes of
military personnel. By the end of 2004, there had been no incidents of firearm
suicide using army guns in the home guard. 36
4. Encourage gun-free homes. Public education campaigns highlighting the
links between guns in the home and suicide (as well as homicide) should
be promoted, and citizens encouraged to remove small arms from settings
where they are more likely to end in the death of a family member than to
protect.
Parliamentarians can ensure that national suicide prevention strategies
are linked to the enforcement of gun laws that seek to reduce access to
weapons to high risk groups (e.g. young people) or people with a history
of mental illness. If such laws do not exist, parliamentarians can promote
the development of such laws and enforcement processes.
RIGHTS-BASED ARGUMENTS: STATE RESPONSIBILITY
A compelling human rights case for careful regulation of civilian-held guns
has also been put forward by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights
and Small Arms, Barbara Frey. 37 She has noted that under international
human rights law, states are required to exercise due diligence to protect
people within their territories from abuses, even when these are committed
by private individuals. She also notes that states are required to take effective
measures to minimise violence by not only criminalising acts of armed
violence and enforcing criminal sanctions, but by preventing small arms
from getting into the hands of those who are likely to misuse them by, for
instance, adopting and enforcing minimum licensing requirements. 38
The state itself may be liable if it fails to investigate and prosecute massacres
or take reasonable steps to regulate guns in order to protect citizens
from homicides, suicides, accidents, a pattern of intimate partner or family
violence, and/or organised crime (See Annex 5 for a list of instruments
relating to controls of guns in the hands of civilians).
ILLICIT TRAFFICKING AND NATIONAL ARMS CONTROL
Regulation of civilian access to small arms is central to efforts to curb gun
trafficking. There are two principal ways in which this connection can be
demonstrated: the first one relates to leakages into the illicit trade through
theft, and the second to cross-border flows of weapons when legislation is
not harmonised.
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