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Gun violence is a prevalent issue that has challenged many countries around the world including Sri Lanka. Guns, a weapon mainly used by armed forces to maintain the peace and security of a country, have now become a weapon which threatens the people’s lives and national security. According to Numbeo 2024, Sri Lanka is placed towards the lower end of the scale of crime index, indicating it has a lower crime index compared to most other South Asian nations. But over the past few years, Sri Lanka has recorded an increasing number of gun violence incidents. In 2022, there were 60 shooting cases and in the first six months of 2023, 20 people were shot dead and 13 were injured.
While causing loss of lives and property, this threat has endangered national security, public safety, political stability, social stability and health of the people by violating human rights and the rule of law and adding expenses to healthcare.
Gun violence can be defined as violence that is committed using firearms. According to UNODC 2014 rifles, machine guns, sub machine guns, shotguns, handguns such as revolvers, pistols and Derringers and craft weapons from simple handguns and shotguns to more sophisticated assault weapons that includes homemade guns are used to commit gun violence. Guns have been used in achieving different purposes including assassinations, ethnic conflicts, terrorist acts, domestic violence, honour killings, suicides, self-defence, theft, robberies, drug trafficking and human trafficking which are driven by political, social, criminal and personal motivations.
When searching for answers to the question of why gun violence is continuously happening, there are a few common reasons identified including availability and easy access to the weapons, weak gun control laws, gun trafficking, lack of trust between law enforcement and communities, exposure to violence, drug involvements, the influence of media and intention of solving personal estrangements.
The excessive use of guns has been caused to spread the violence in all parts of the country. The availability and easy access to the weapons and rapid increase of guns have become a long lasting problem that causes the increase of gun violence. Police press reports of July 2024 show that more than 30 guns were found in the hands of civilians and they were arrested in different areas of the country. With technological advancement, many nations have started to focus on arms production without only relying on foreign suppliers and started to produce their own arms including firearms. Sri Lanka is also among them. According to the Sri Lanka Police 2024 while some of the guns found in July were imported, many were manufactured in Sri Lanka and unlicensed.
The rules regarding firearms are stated under the Firearms Ordinance, which has undergone several amendments. Although there are enhanced rules and regulations about licences and permits, importation of guns, sale of guns, purchase of guns, possession of guns, transfer of guns and manufacture of guns under the firearms ordinance and its amendments, they are not complied with. As a result, illegal firearms are being traded and manufactured and crimes are increasing while making the pathway to political instability and social unrest. It undermines people’s confidence in the government and its institutions, which make it possible to break the trust between law enforcement and communities; people will no longer trust the law or cooperate with police to fight against crime.
Exposure to violence is a leading cause of gun related violence such as cases of domestic violence, honour killings and suicides. According to Soken-Huberty 2023, it may encourage individuals to buy guns with the possibility of endangering themselves, family and friends. Other reasons for gun violence are intention of solving personal estrangements, drug involvement and other organised crimes.
The media has also been a reason for the sudden increase of gun violence in the past few years. It is because of the reporting style of most news channels. When news channels give detailed reports on gun crimes, especially when they show the motivation and background behind the crimes and perpetrators and the way the crimes are committed, people who seek attention will be influenced, leading to normalisation of gun use. An example is that in the past few years, most incidents that took place in different cities happened in a similar manner involving motorbikes and road shootings as can be seen by the killing of Saman Perera and four others in Beliatta and the shooting in Middeniya that injured two people on July.
Most incidents of gun violence reported in the past few years occurred due to criminal, social and personal motivations as in the case of Surendra Wasantha Perera in Athurugiriya area in July 2024, using guns. Two people were killed and four others were injured.
If illegal arms are present in the hands of extremist groups and criminal gangs, it will pose a direct threat to the sovereignty of a nation and its territorial integrity. People are not safe when firearms are used in the middle of the roads and public places so it is important to prevent and mitigate the threat of gun violence.
Gun violence that is driven by criminal and personal motivations should be addressed at its roots. For that the collective engagement of community, media and government is needed.
Relevant authorities who are responsible for maintaining the law and order should tighten existing laws and regulations on firearms, especially on importation, manufacture, sales, use and transfer of guns, and the effectiveness of the existing laws should be improved.
Availability of guns for civilians should be tightly controlled and as a part of this, it is important to do a compulsory background check of the gun buyers before issuing the licence and firearms. To prevent and mitigate the illegal sales and purchases of firearms and misuse of guns, the process of renewing licences in a regulated time period should be monitored.
It is essential to give updated technological training on firearms to the police force. To fight against gun violence, the underlying social, political and economic factors behind the individuals and criminal gangs such as poverty and lack of education should be addressed.
People should be made aware of the use of guns, laws related to firearms and prevention methods of gun violence while media platforms should stop giving detailed reports on crimes to the public. To prevent cases of suicide using firearms, rehabilitation programmes should be conducted for the people who tried to commit suicide using firearms and were injured because of firearms.
These safety measures will promote peace and security in the country and will create a safer environment for all by reducing gun violence and other related crimes such as trafficking of arms.