Report: Police's Yearly Firearm Seizure Figures
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1) Police arrested about 20,000 people in a campaign against illegal firearms in China in the last 12 months, a Chinese news agency reported Tuesday.
2) The China News Service quoted police as saying they seized about 260,000 firearms, 870,000 bullets, 1,600 grenades and 460,000 kilograms (1 million pounds) of explosives during the period, the China News Service said.
3) It also said police broke up 206 syndicates involved in illegal firearms traffic.
Japan Calls For World Cooperation Against Gun Trafficking
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1) Japan has taken the lead at a U.N. crime conference in urging nations to unite to combat trafficking in firearms, which the Asian nation blames for increased crime around the globe.
2) Most countries have no idea of the number of guns -- especially pistols and other hand-held weapons -- that are smuggled into their countries, Japan's delegation said. And laws for dealing with smugglers vary greatly.
3) ``We feel it is necessary to study the situation,'' Jiro Ono, a director of international affairs in Japan's National Police Agency, said Saturday. ``After that, we hope to have some common understanding to seek appropriate measures in the future.''
4) Japan is sponsoring the gun control declaration at the 10-day congress, which runs through May 8.
5) The declaration, which is expected to be adopted later in the week, notes that ``criminal activities in which firearms are used are increasing because illicit trafficking in firearms, both at the national and transnational levels, is expanding.''
6) It urges the world's nations ``to establish a common strategy for effective control of firearms at the global level.''
7) ``We cannot reduce violent crimes using firearms without international cooperation,'' said Hiroyuki Onuki, head of the international affairs department at the National Police Agency.
8) No figures are available on the numbers of firearms smuggled, often by organized crime groups, mainly because many countries have no records. Another problem is that countries have widely varying laws on the ownership of weapons.
9) Japan and Canada, for example, face the problem in very different ways.
10) Private ownership of firearms is prohibited in Japan, yet police seized 1,700 guns illegal weapons in 1994, Ono said.
11) In Canada, arms ownership is legal for sports, hunting and personal security.
12) But Canadian Justice Minister Allan Rock told the conference that legally owned weapons also can lead to criminal acts, including domestic violence.
13) The conference has drawn 1,300 delegates from 124 countries. Other topics include ways to improve the penal system, the internationalization of organized crime and urban violence.
Feds Propose Yearly Gun Inventory
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1) Federally licensed importers, manufacturers and dealers of guns would have to conduct at least one inventory each year to identify any missing firearms, under a rule proposed by the Clinton administration.
2) The proposal by the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would ''help strengthen enforcement of federal firearms laws and reduce the avenues in which violent criminals and juveniles acquire illegal firearms,'' James Johnson, Treasury undersecretary for enforcement, said in a statement Wednesday.
3) More than 27,000 lost or stolen firearms were reported by federal licensees between 1998 and 1999. Stolen firearms are a ''significant source of guns for criminals,'' Johnson said.
4) ''Inventory discrepancies, recordkeeping errors and employee theft (problems which often only become apparent when a physical inventory is conducted) accounted for almost 40 percent of the reported incidents,'' ATF said in the Federal Register, which published the proposal Monday.
5) The proposal is subject to public comment and possible revision before taking effect. Interested parties must weigh in by Nov. 27.
6) Existing law requires licensed importers, manufacturers and dealers to report any theft or loss of firearms from their inventories to the ATF or appropriate local authorities within 48 hours after it is discovered.
7) The proposal would require licensees to do at least one annual physical inventory of their firearms and reconcile that inventory with their records. Any missing firearms would have to be reported within 48 hours.
8) In addition, the proposal clarifies that when guns are lost in transit or during shipment, it is the responsibility of the party sending the firearms to report a stolen or missing gun. Existing regulations do not specify whether the sending or receiving licensee is responsible for making such a report.
9) ''The lack of clarity ... may result in neither party reporting the theft or loss,'' ATF said in its proposal.
10) In 1999, there were 1,271 crime guns traced in which the licensee claimed that it never received the firearm shipped to it and the firearm had not been reported lost or stolen, ATF said.
Government announces guns amnesty to battle rising firearms crime
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1) The government announced a one-month guns amnesty Sunday, allowing people who own illegal weapons to hand them over to police without prosecution, as part of a battle against rising firearms crime.
2) ``The safety of the public and police officers is our first priority. Taking guns off our streets will save lives and cut crime. Every weapon that is given up is a weapon that cannot be used in crime and violence,'' said Home Office Minister Bob Ainsworth.
3) The government said it was calling for people to give up air guns and imitation weapons as well as prohibited firearms and ammunition during the amnesty from March 31 to April 30.
4) Gun crime is still relatively rare in Britain where handguns were banned in 1997 after the massacre of 16 children and a teacher at a primary school in Dunblane, Scotland. Previous amnesties in 1996 and 1998 yielded thousands of weapons.
5) There were 73 gun homicides in England and Wales in the 2000-2001 fiscal year, which runs from April to April. The United States, with about five times the population, had 8,719 firearm murders in 2001, according to the FBI.
6) But statistics published in January showed firearms were used in 9,974 crimes in the 12 months ending in April in England and Wales, compared with 7,362 the previous year, an increase of 35 percent and the fourth straight year to show an increase.
7) Fears of a rising gun culture appeared to be founded when, just days later, two teenage girls were shot to death in the central English city of Birmingham when caught in the middle of a turf war between gangs.
8) Ainsworth said that the government and police had detected a ``disturbing'' increase in the number of young people casually carrying firearms.
9) ``We need to act now to show that this is unacceptable and to stop the development of a gun culture, where firearms are treated as fashion accessories,'' he said.
10) ``The police are encouraging the hand-in of any type of firearms, including imitations, that are held for criminal or anti-social purposes.''
11) The amnesty comes ahead of the introduction of a minimum five-year jail sentence for carrying an illegal firearm. There is currently no minimum sentence for carrying an illegal weapon.
12) The government has also said it will outlaw the carrying of air guns and mock firearms in public as part of efforts to stem rising gun crime. Penalties for breaching those laws have not yet been decided.
13) Oliver Letwin, the opposition Conservative Party's spokesman for home affairs, said he welcomed an amnesty to get guns off the street but said that should not allow people who have committed crimes with the surrendered guns to escape prosecution.
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Brazilian president orders restrictive new rules on guns
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1) Brazil's government enacted tougher gun control laws Friday to halt what President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has called a "an epidemic of murders by firearms."
2) The new rules prohibit possession of firearms in public places such as sports arenas, churches, government buildings and schools. They raise the minimum age for gun ownership from 18 to 25 years and require gun owners to register their weapons with both the Defense Ministry and the Justice Ministry.
3) Congress passed the gun-control law, giving Silva powers to adopt restrictions on firearms, in December. The new rules didn't go into effect until Silva published them Friday.
4) "Every 12 minutes, someone is murdered (by gunfire) in Brazil...an epidemic of murders by firearms is hitting chiefly at Brazilian youth," Silva said in a speech to Congress in December when it passed the bill.
5) The rules also create a program in which the government will buy firearms from citizens as an incentive to disarm them. However, Congress hasn't yet approved funding. which is expected to be about US$3.5 million, and officials haven't yet decided how much to pay for each weapon.
6) Silva has said he favors a ban on gun purchases and possession. Brazilians will vote on a proposed ban in a referendum in 2005.
7) In 2000, the most recent year for which figures were available, 31,378 of 45,919 reported homicides were committed with guns, the United Nations said.
8) The London-based International Action Network on Small Arms ranks Brazil fifth after Colombia, South Africa, El Salvador, Lesotho at 21.2 per 100,000 inhabitants. It cited the latest available United Nations figures on death rates by firearms covering 2002.
9) Skeptics, including many in government, have called the new law well-intentioned but unlikely to alter crime statistics in a country where it is easy to buy firearms illegally.
10) "Restricting the sale of firearms means denying ordinary citizens the right to protect themselves while benefiting criminals," according to Sao Paulo State Assemblyman Ubiratan Guimaraes in a letter to constituents commenting on the law.
Brazilian gun buyback program exceeds government hopes
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1) As gun-related violence claimed another victim in Rio, police said a national campaign for citizens to surrender privately held weapons has met its target twice as fast as expected.
2) Brazilians have turned in 80,025 firearms in less than two months under the government-sponsored gun buyback program, the federal police said Friday.
3) The government had originally hoped to collect at least 80,000 firearms by Dec. 23, when a tough new gun law takes affect.
4) The buyback program _ part of the government's efforts to keep guns off the streets in a country with one of the world's highest murder rates _ invites Brazilians to turn in weapons for compensation of up to 300 reals (US$103) each.
5) Even as Brazilians continued to turn in weapons, a 16-year-old student from the city of Nova Iguacu near Rio on became the latest gunshot victim.
6) Augusto Rodrigues, who was shot in the stomach Sept. 1 by a 14-year-old student inside a classroom, died in a hospital Friday.
7) Local police believe the younger student accidentally shot Rodrigues when showing the gun to friends at the school.
8) The government had budgeted 10 million reals (US$3.4 million) for the buyback program. Now hoping to eliminate twice as many firearms, the administration has asked Congress for another 20 million reals (US$6.9 million).
9) The government should extend the program for at least another 6 months, said Rubem Cesar Fernandes, head of the Rio-based anti-violence group Viva Rio.
10) "This campaign could collect up to a million guns, but for that we would need to dramatically expand the number of collection posts and that takes time," Fernandes said.
11) According to UNESCO, Brazil has 27.1 homicides per 100,000 people _ the fourth-highest rate among countries where homicide statistics are available. Firearms are used in 68 percent of the killings.
12) The new gun control law to take effect in late December will prohibit the possession of firearms in public and raises the minimum age for gun ownership from 18 to 25. It also requires owners to register their guns.
Brazil may extend its gun buyback program
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1) Brazil's gun buyback program has been so successful that the government is considering extending it for another six months, Justice Minister Marcio Thomaz Bastos said Monday.
2) Since the nationwide program was launched in mid-July, Brazilians have relinquished 160,000 guns and rifles, Bastos told Agencia Brasil, the government's official news agency. That number is double the 80,000 the government had originally estimated would be turned in by Dec.23, as part of a tough new gun law.
3) The buyback program is part of the government's efforts to keep firearms off the streets of a country with one of the world's highest murder rates.
4) According to UNESCO, Brazil has 27.1 homicides per 100,000 people _ the fourth-highest in the world. Sixty-eight percent of those killings are committed with firearms.
5) A Sao Paulo-based disarmament group called Sou da Paz, or I am for Peace, estimates there are about 1.5 million legally registered guns in the state of Sao Paulo and another 1.5 million unregistered guns.
6) Brazil's new gun law that bans citizens from carrying guns - with only a few exceptions -started being implemented September 22.
7) Under the new law, gun owners have to reapply for permits and only police, people in high risk professions and those who can prove their lives are threatened will be eligible to receive new permits. Those caught carrying weapons without permits could face up to four years in prison.
8) The new law also increased the minimum age for owning a weapon to 25 from 18.
9) By Dec. 23, when the buyback program was scheduled to end, all gun owners must either register their weapons with police or turn them in.
10) Under the buyback program, the government is paying up to 300 reals (about euro77 or $100) for each firearm depending on its caliber and age.
Churches join disarmament campaign in Brazil
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1) Churches in Brazil joined the government's disarmament campaign on Saturday, hoping to call attention to an upcoming national referendum that could completely ban the commercial sale of firearms.
2) Catholic, Orthodox, Presbyterian and Lutheran churches across Brazil opened their doors to allow people to voluntarily turn in their guns, the official Agencia Brasil news service reported. The churches will be taking the firearms until the end of the nationwide disarmament campaign on June 23.
3) Hoping to curb violence, the government and several nonprofit organizations launched the disarmament campaign in July last year. In October, Brazilians will decide in a national referendum whether the commercial sale of guns should be entirely banned in the country.
4) The churches hoped to net about 100,000 guns until the end of the campaign, the Agencia Brasil said. The government has already recovered more than 300,000 firearms with a buyback program that was instituted when the campaign started.
5) The program pays up to 300 reals (US$125; euro100) for each gun turned in, depending on its caliber and condition. The guns are accepted with no questions asked.
6) A law approved in 2003 prohibits Brazilian citizens from carrying firearms, with few exceptions. Only police, people in high-risk professions and those who can prove their lives are threatened are eligible for permits. The minimum age for owning a weapon is 25, and anyone caught carrying a weapon without a permit faces up to four years in prison.
7) With almost 40,000 firearm-related deaths a year, Brazil is one of the world's most violent countries.
Firearms deaths drop in Brazil for the first time in 13 years
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1) Firearms deaths dropped in 2004 for the first time in 13 years, the government said Friday, attributing the results to a national disarmament campaign.
2) Firearms deaths dropped by 8.2 percent in 2004 over the year before, the Health Ministry said. Last year, 36,091 people were killed by guns down from 39,325 in 2003, a decrease of 3,234 people.
3) "We are living at a moment of crisis in this country, but today is a day of great happiness. We are commemorating the saving of thousands of lives," Justice Minister Marcio Thomaz Bastos told reporters at a ceremony to announce the survey results in Brasilia, the capital.
4) Firearms deaths dropped in all but eight of Brazil's 26 states.
5) In Sao Paulo, Brazil's most violent state, gun deaths dropped by nearly 20 percent and in Rio de Janeiro the reduction was nearly 10 percent.
6) Officials attributed the reduction to a national disarmament campaign that began in 2004, paying gun owners to turn in their weapons, without any questions asked.
7) So far, the government has collected 440,000 firearms and hopes to reach half a million by Oct. 23, the date of referendum in which Brazilians will decide whether to ban the sale of firearms entirely. Originally, the government hoped to collect 80,000 weapons.
8) Brazil is one of the most violent countries in the world, with the number of firearms deaths higher than in some countries at war.
Survey: Brazilians divided on whether to ban gun sales nationwide
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1) Brazilians are divided on whether to ban the sale of firearms and ammunition in Latin America's largest country, according to a poll released Friday.
2) A survey conducted by the Ibope polling institute showed that 49 percent of those questioned are against banning the sale of all firearms and ammunition, while 45 percent said they favor it. The survey, published by the Globo TV, had a 2.2 percent margin of error.
3) Six percent of the 2,002 people polled in 143 cities throughout Brazil Oct. 11-13 didn't know or refused to voice their opinion on the issue, which will be decided in an Oct. 23 nationwide referendum.
4) The referendum, approved by both houses of Congress earlier this year, is the last stage in Brazil's 2003 gun-control law. If approved, it would bar the sale of firearms to anyone but law enforcement authorities. Guns and ammunition bought before the referendum would not be confiscated, although Brazilians' right to carry a gun would be restricted.
5) Under existing law, the sale of firearms is limited to police, those in high-risk professions and individuals who can demonstrate that their lives are threatened. The minimum age for owning a gun is 25.
6) With almost 40,000 firearm-related deaths a year, Brazil is one of the world's most violent countries.
7) According to UNESCO, Brazil ranks second in deaths by guns, with 21.72 per 100,000 people a year. Venezuela has 34.3 gun deaths per 100,000, but Brazil is tops in absolute numbers of those killed.
8) The government has recovered more than 350,000 firearms under a gun buyback program. The program, which has cost the country at least 38 million reals (US$16 million; euro13.2 million), offers up to 300 reals (US$133; euro110) for each weapon turned in, depending on its caliber and condition.
9) More than 100 million Brazilians are expected to vote in the referendum, which the government calls the world's biggest. Brazilians as young as 16 can vote, and voting is compulsory for citizens from 18 to 70.
Brazilians reject proposed gun sales ban in national referendum
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1) Brazilians soundly rejected a proposal to ban gun sales in a national referendum that stirred a fierce debate in a country with one of the world's highest gun death rates.
2) With more than 95 percent of the votes counted on Sunday, 64 percent of Brazilians were opposed to the ban, while 36 percent backed it, said officials at the Supreme Electoral Court, giving the 'no' position an insurmountable lead.
3) "They didn't vote in favor of guns, they voted to protest the government and the lack of a national security policy," said Antonio Rangel, coordinator of the gun control campaign at the Viva Rio think tank. "Two months ago we had 81 percent support for the ban, this shows that less than 20 percent of the population really believe in guns. The rest was protest."
4) But those who opposed the ban said it was more than that.
5) "The 'no' aside from being a protest is a reaction to the attempt to take a right away from the citizen," said Rep. Alberto Fraga, who led the congressional lobby against the ban. "If the ban was approved the bandits would have been overjoyed with incompetence of the state."
6) Brazil has 100 million fewer citizens than the United States, but a staggering 25 percent more gun deaths at nearly 40,000 a year. While supporters argued that gun control was the best way to staunch the violence, opponents played on Brazilians' fears that the police can't protect them.
7) "I don't like people walking around armed on the street. But since all the bandits have guns, you need to have a gun at home," said taxi driver Mohammed Osei, who voted against the ban.
8) The proposal would have prohibited the sale of firearms and ammunition except for police, the military, some security guards, gun collectors and sports shooters. It would complement a 2003 disarmament law that sharply restricts who can legally purchase firearms and carry guns on the street.
9) That law, coupled with a government-sponsored gun buyback program, has reduced deaths from firearms by about 8 percent this year, the Health Ministry said.
10) But the referendum backfired for proponents. Earlier this year, support for the ban was running as high as 80 percent. But in the weeks before the referendum, both sides were granted free time to present their cases on prime-time TV, and the pro-gun lobby began to grow.
11) Analysts said the pro-gun advocates benefited from equal time on television in the final weeks of the campaign and that they cannily cashed in on Brazilian skepticism of the police.
12) "They ask the question: 'Do you feel protected and do you think the government is protecting you?' and the answer is a violent no," said political scientist David Fleischer of the University of Brasilia.
13) The combination of Brazil's high gun-death rate and the nature of the debate over the right to gun ownership has drawn parallels to the gun debate in the United States, where the influential National Rifle Association, or NRA, a gun owners' lobbying group, has successfully fought off gun control legislation, citing provisions in the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing the right to bear arms.
14) "The whole campaign (against the ban) was imported from the United States. They just translated a lot of material from the NRA," said Jessica Galeria, a Californian who researches gun violence with the Viva Rio think tank. "Now, a lot of Brazilians are insisting on their right to bear arms, they don't even have a pseudo right to bear arms. It's not in their Constitution."
15) In Washington, the NRA's public affairs director Andrew Arulanandam called the proposal's defeat "a victory for freedom."
16) "It's a stunning defeat for the global gun control movement. They poured millions of dollars and millions more man hours trying to enact this gun ban and they failed. The aim of this gun ban movement was to use Brazil as the rallying point to enact gun bans in the United States. We're happy they were defeated," he said.
17) Some Brazilians said they resented the referendum because they feel the government is ducking its responsibility to keep the peace.
18) "It's immoral for the government to have this vote," said Pedro Ricardo, an army officer in Sao Paulo. "They're putting the responsibility on us, but ... the way to cut down on violence is to combat the drug trade and patrol our borders."
19) Supporters maintain the referendum is the only way to make Brazil safer.
20) "We have to do something about the violence in this country," said Paulo Leite, an engineer from the upscale Ipanema beach district.
21) About 39,000 people in Brazil are killed by guns each year, compared to about 30,000 people in the United States, although the U.S. population is about 100 million more than Brazil's, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
22) According to UNESCO, Brazil ranks second worldwide in deaths by guns, with 21.72 per 100,000 people a year. Venezuela has 34.3 gun deaths per 100,000.
23) But in shantytowns like Rio's Vila do Joao, the rate rises to around 150 per 100,000. And for shantytown males between ages 17 and 24, the death rate is closer to 250 per 100,000.
Gun control advocates in Brazil blame crime, corruption for failure of ban on gun sales
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1) Stunned by the crushing defeat of a referendum to ban the sale of firearms in Brazil, gun control advocates on Monday blamed a lack of public safety and government corruption.
2) On Sunday, more than 120 million Brazilians were asked: "Should the commerce of small arms and ammunition be prohibited?" With 99.85 percent of the votes counted, 63.92 percent of Brazilians voted "no," while 36.08 percent voted "yes."
3) "The 'no' vote managed to capitalize (on) dissatisfactions which are growing, with good reasons, in Brazilian society _ with government, with public institutions, with public security, with the social conditions," said Rubem Cesar Fernandes, director of the Viva Rio think tank which campaigned heavily in favor of the ban. "It became a 'no' against it all."
4) Brazil has 100 million fewer citizens than the United States, but a staggering 25 percent more gun deaths at nearly 40,000 a year _ making it the country with the second highest rate of firearm-related deaths in the world after Venezuela.
5) While supporters argued that gun control was the best way to stem the violence, opponents deftly played on Brazilians' fears that the police can't protect them.
6) "I voted 'no' because I don't think it (the ban) will change much and because there's too much corruption and the government wants to dump the problem of disarming on us," said Angela Maria Vicente, a 26-year-old food service worker.
7) The "no" supporters used those fears and nationalistic appeals to Brazil's sovereignty to create a broad coalition of the political right and the left, as well as the country's rich and poor.
8) "The population understood perfectly that it should not give up its right (to bear arms)," Rep. Luiz Antonio Fleury, a coordinator of the 'no' campaign, told reporters following the vote.
9) Many also saw the "no" vote as a protest against the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who openly backed the proposed ban. Silva's popularity has sunk as his government has been accused of illegal campaign financing and vote-buying in Congress.
10) "It was very bad for us to have this vote at a time when the government is very discredited. A lot of people thought the referendum was invented by the government to distract attention from the scandal," said Antonio Rangel, the coordinator of Viva Rio's disarmament campaign.
11) Brazil decided two years ago to have a referendum as the last phase of its disarmament statute, which imposed tough restrictions on who can purchase and carry firearms.
12) Those restrictions plus a government-sponsored gun buyback program appeared to have reduced the number of firearms deaths by 8 percent last year, according to the Health Ministry.
13) But analysts said that Brazil's problems with crime and violence run deeper than gun control and require large-scale investments and reform of the country's judiciary and police.
14) "The results of the referendum are zero. If 'yes' won or 'no' won there would be no difference," said David Fleischer, a political science professor at the University of Brasilia. "The referendum was important because the people spoke out and spoke out very strongly that they want more security. Unfortunately they're not going to get it this year or next."