United Nations: There are over 1 billion firearms in the world today,including 857 million in civilian hands – with American men and women thedominant owners, according to a study released Monday, gulf news hasreported.
The Small Arms Survey says 393 million of the civilian-held firearms, 46percent, are in the United States, which is “more than those held bycivilians in the other top 25 countries combined.”United States has a unique gun culture
“The key to the United States, of course, is its unique gun culture,” thereport’s author, Aaron Karp, said at a news conference. “American civiliansbuy an average of 14 million new firearms every year, and that means theUnited States is an overwhelming presence on civilian markets.”
The report said the numbers include legal and illegal firearms in civilianhands, ranging from improvised craft weapons to factory-made handguns,rifles, shotguns and, in some countries, even machine guns.
The estimate of over 1 billion firearms worldwide at the end of 2017 alsoincludes 133 million such weapons held by government military forces and22.7 million by law enforcement agencies, it said.Largest number of civilian-held guns
According to the report, the countries with the largest estimated number ofcivilian-held legal and illegal firearms at the end of 2017 were the UnitedStates with 393.3 million, India with 71.1 million, China with 49.7million, Pakistan with 43.9 million and Russia with 17.6 million.
But Karp said the more important number is the estimated rate of civilianfirearms holdings per 100 residents – and in that table India, China andRussia rank much lower than the U.S. and outside the top 25 whilePakistan ranks20th.
At the top of that ranking are Americans, who own 121 firearms for every100 residents. They are followed by Yemenis at 53, Montenegro and Serbia with39, Canada and Uruguay about 35, and Finland, Lebanon and Iceland around 32.
Karp said the Small Arms Survey doesn’t have year-by-year data butcountries whose ownership appears to have gone down relative to 2007include Finland, Iraq, Sweden and Switzerland, though he cautioned thiscould be due to better data. He said ownership rates in Canada and Iceland are”clearly up” while the rates in Cyprus, Yemen, Serbia and the UnitedStates remainedrelatively stable.Significantly higher by millions
Karp said the new global estimate is significantly higher than the 875million firearms estimated in the last survey in 2007, and the 650 millioncivilian-held firearms at that time – mostly due to increasing civilianownership.
While the United States was dominant in civilian ownership in 2007 and2017, the report said the U.S. is only fifth today in military firearmsholdings, behind Russia, China, North Korea and Ukraine. It is also fifthin law enforcement holdings, behind Russia, China, India and Egypt.
The Small Arms Survey released its study to coincide with the third U.N.conference to assess progress on implementing a 2001 program known asPrevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms, whichincludes marking weapons so they can be traced. The conference openedMonday and ends June 29.
Small Arms Survey director Eric Berman stressed that the Geneva-basedresearch and policy institute isn’t an advocacy organization.
“We don’t advocate disarmament. We are not against guns,” he said. “What wewant to do, and what we have done successfully for the last 19 years, is tobe able to provide authoritative information and analysis for governmentsso that they can work to address illicit proliferation and reduce it – andto reduce also the incidents of armed violence.”
Karp, a lecturer at Old Dominion University in Virginia, said that sincethe 2007 report, “we have a much more accurate picture of the distributionof firearms around the world than we’ve ever had before.”
He said information, including on civilian ownership from 133 countries,has enabled the Small Arms Survey to publish figures on 230 countries andautonomous territories.
But he cautioned that every country’s figures include “some degree ofestimation.”