An avoidable tragedy

The account from Faisalabad of a seven-year-old boy who accidentally shot his mother dead while playing with his father’s pistol is a tragedy. There can be nothing sadder for the family with the boy and his father now both in police custody. But we should keep in mind that this is a tragedy created by us. Pakistan currently has the fourth largest civilian ownership of firearms anywhere in the world. According to a Geneva-based organisation which carried out a detailed study of the global distribution of guns worldwide, there are 43.9 million pistols, rifles and automatic weapons in the hands of civilian Pakistanis. This is an alarming number.

The US of course has the highest gun ownership, with 393 million firearms in circulation. The rate of gun crime in that country is alarming, currently standing at its highest level in 20 years. There have been 90 mass shootings in the USA since 1982 and 40,000 deaths related to guns in that country in 2017. US school and college students have lately led marches demanding that guns be taken out of circulation.

Many of the weapons that are held by civilians in our country are unlicensed. There is therefore a complete absence of control over who owns them and how they are kept. Laws in the gun-friendly US require for example that they be kept under lock and key, and naturally out of the hands of children. Such legislation is not present in our country and nor is there any implementation of basic safety requirements. In the first place, we need to take guns away from the extremely large number of people who possess them. Gun crime in Karachi has been creeping up over the years, and accidents of the kind which occurred in Faisalabad are an excellent reason to strictly restrict firearms and their possession. In addition to this, we need to create safety awareness about the handling of weapons, including those frequently used on festive occasions including weddings. Toy guns also need to be removed from the hands of children. Attempts to do so have already taken place at some schools in the country. These need to be enforced further alongside the building of a culture which not only outlaws the possession of weapons but also discourages their use.