Originally published on the CGS blog on February 8, 2008.
Mr. Philip Alpers of Sydney University gave a compelling presentation on small arms disarmament. He felt that too much effort was being put into nuclear weapon disarmament, and not enough into small arms. His rationale was simple:
Deaths caused by nuclear weapons since 1945 = 0
Deaths caused by small arms = 1000 per day
He used a public health analogy and discussed small (hand held) weapons as a disease vector. Here’s the formula:
Gun is to armed violence as mosquito is to malaria.
Next the “Global Peace Index”
