MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union

MISSING PIECES
THEME 3 CONSIDERING THE NEEDS OF GUN
VIOLENCE SURVIVORS
Debates on how arms control efforts should be strengthened
consistently fail to acknowledge or address the needs of those
who survive gun violence. This is not tangential to the small
arms control agenda, rather it drives to the heart of efforts
seeking to reduce the human cost of gun violence and is an area where
parliamentarians can be particularly engaged. As used here, the term ‘survivors’
describes two broad groupings of people: those who themselves have
been physically injured, intimidated or brutalised through armed violence;
and those who are related to, love, work with, care for or are otherwise negatively
impacted upon by someone who has been a victim of gun violence.
Policymaking on gun control can and should be essentially preventive—
with the primary goal of reducing gun violence and injury occurring in
the first place. Yet despite best efforts at numerous levels, gun violence is
likely to be a feature of human relations and landscapes for years to come.
So in addition to preventive work, it is essential that the needs of existing
and future survivors and the people who care for them are appropriately
considered and addressed.
This theme provides an overview of what can be termed ‘victim assistance’
for survivors of armed violence, and highlights ways to incorporate
this overlooked issue into the national and global agendas on weapons
control. 1 Unlike many of the themes in Missing Pieces, assistance for gun
violence survivors is in a sense ‘at square one,’ confounded by a significant
absence of research and policy-relevant information and complicated by
the variety of settings in which armed violence occurs. This theme therefore
seeks to introduce broad areas for consideration.
THE GROWING BURDEN OF GUN INJURIES
Violence, including homicide and suicide, and other injuries account for
9 per cent of global mortality and are a leading cause of disability. 2 According
62