More than 500,000 men, women, and children die around the world each year as a result of armed violence. Millions more are maimed or injured. Lost productivity due to homicides alone is conservatively estimated at between USD 95 billion and 163 billion per year. Violence due to armed conflict can decrease the annual growth of a typical economy by approximately two per cent. Poor people bear a disproportionate burden of death and injuries from violence, with over 90% of deaths from injuries occurring in low-middle income countries.
The most lethal weapons used in armed violence – firearms – are by their design small, portable, rugged, and relatively inexpensive, and have been called “violence multipliers. They can wreak havoc with lives and livelihoods. Over one billion small arms circulate in global markets, produced by more than 1,000 companies from nearly 100 countries. Small arms and light weapons alone kill an estimated 200,000 – 300,000 people per year. “Violence is…an important health problem – and one that is largely preventable. Public health approaches have much to contribute to solving it.”
Armed violence is an impediment to health and development. It creates a culture of violence, diverts health care resources from disease control, health and nutrition education, creates internal displacement/refugees, encourages human rights and sexual abuse, and scares away investment while it increases the cost of doing business. It prevents humanitarian assistance from reaching people in need, it weakens the rule of law, and obstructs achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In other words, armed violence and guns are bad for health and healthy societies.
REFERENCES
Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development. Global burden of armed violence 2015. (http://www.genevadeclaration.org/) (2015).
Marsh, N. Taming the tools of violence. Journal of Public Health Policy, Vol 28:401-409. 2007.
Small Arms Survey Global Firearms Holdings 2017. (http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/weapons-and-markets/tools/global-firearms-holdings.html )
World Health Organization. Small Arms and Global Health. (https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/publications/violence/small_arms/en/)
WHO/NMH/VIP/01.1 Geneva, Switzerland, 2001.
World Health Organization. Injuries and Violence: The Facts 2010. (https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/key_facts/en/) World Health Organization. Preventing violence and reducing its impact: How development agencies and governments can help.