Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence

CONTROL ARMS FOUNDATION OF INDIA

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MANIPURI WOMEN GUN SURVIVOR’S NETWORK
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Gun violence kills more than 350,000 people a year, and severely injures more than a million. Yet the global trade that fuels the epidemic of armed violence is not subject to international regulation. This week civil society in India will join 70 countries around the world to mark the Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence that is being observed from 2 to 8 June 2008. This annual activity is the largest coordinated gun prevention event in the world.

New Delhi, 4 June 2008: A thousand people die every day by gunshots, and three times as many are severely injured. Spinal cords severed, bones shattered, families destroyed, hearts broken. If the death, injury and disability resulting from small arms were categorised as a disease, we would view it as an epidemic. Ms Binalakshmi Nepram, Secretary General of Control Arms Foundation of India and founder of Manipuri Women Gun Survivor Network says, ” Thousands of lives have been lost in Manipur and various other parts pf the world due to gun violence. It is time that we recognise unimaginable damage and trauma that a gun death or a gun injury causes and it is time that we take action against it”

An assault with a firearm is 12 times more likely to prove fatal than an assault by other means. The mere presence of a gun creates a mortal danger: a 2003 study conducted in the US showed that keeping a gun in the home increases the risk of somebody in the household dying