MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union

THEME 5
holders have to be at least 25 years of age, mentally fit, approved members
of the community, and self-protection is not a valid reason for owning a gun.
Experience in Sierra Leone serves to illustrate the importance of ensuring
DDR programmes incorporate comprehensive weapons reduction schemes
that include guns in the hands of civilians. However, it also highlights the
need to ensure that community collection schemes are appropriate to the
context in which they are conducted. Parliamentarians are well placed to
provide information and insights regarding the communities where collection
programmes are planned. They are also in a position to provide input on
legislative processes regarding the revision or creation of firearms legislation.
The local knowledge and understanding that parliamentarians have and
their ability to drive policy and legislative reform is especially useful to international
actors engaged in designing and implementing development and
reconstruction programmes in countries recovering from war. Parliamentarians
could actively engage with such organisations during the recovery phase,
especially with regard to the development of appropriate DDR programmes.
1. The establishment of clear objectives and impact indicators
It is crucial to establish clear and concrete objectives, both in terms of
process (number of weapons to be collected, from whom, and timelines)
and impact. This requires a thorough analysis of weapons holding in a
given context, including baseline numbers of weapons circulation, predominant
forms of violence (criminal, political, intimate partner and family),
categories of weapons owners and users, new sources of weapons and
supply routes, attitudes to and perceptions of guns and disarmament, legislative
and institutional framework, etc. The number of weapons collected
alone is not necessarily indicative of an impact on human security.
While the ultimate goal is usually to reduce armed violence and improve
human security, only local experiences of security can determine appropriate
impact indicators. In contexts where baseline data is scarce and/or
unreliable, this requires enhancing the national capacity for data collection
– an activity that parliamentarians can encourage. 1
Efforts to measure impact will also enable practitioners and researchers
to document and clarify the value of weapons collection. More analysis
is needed to examine the impact and value added of weapons collection
compared to alternative violence reduction measures.
Further impacts and social changes must also be considered. Collection
initiatives can, for example, promote collaboration and dialogue between
different actors in the community, which in turn can prevent or reduce
violence. 2 By placing gun control on the public agenda, disarmament pro-
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