Gun violence

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence

Gun violence defined literally means the use of a firearm to threaten or inflict violence or harm. Gun violence may be broadly defined as a category of violence and crime committed with the use of a firearm; it may^[1] or may not^[2][3] include actions ruled as self-defense, actions for law enforcement, or the safe lawful use of firearms for sport, hunting, and target practice. Gun violence encompasses intentional crime characterized as homicide (although not all homicide is automatically a crime) and assault with a deadly weapon, as well as unintentional injury and death resulting from the misuse of firearms, sometimes by children and adolescents.^[4] Gun violence statistics also may include self-inflicted gunshot wounds (both suicide, attempted suicide and suicide/homicide combinations sometimes seen within families). ^[5]

The phrase “gun crime” is consistently used by both gun-control and gun-rights policy advocates, with differing emphases: the former group advocates reducing gun violence by enacting and enforcing “sensible regulations” on guns, while the latter group advocates controlling criminals via increased prison terms or other methods.^[6][7]

Levels of gun violence vary greatly across the world, with very high rates in South Africa and Colombia, as well as high levels in Thailand, Guatemala, and some other developing countries.^[8] Levels of gun violence are low in Singapore, Chile, New Zealand, and many other countries.^[8] The United States has the highest rate among developed countries.^[9]

Election Related Gun Violence in the Philippines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence#Election_Related_Gun_Violence_in_the_Philippines

The Philippines is notorious^[32] for election related gun violence. In an effort to reduce killings during the 2010 Philippine Elections, the Philippine Commission on Elections (Comelec) together with the Philippine National Police (PNP) put in place a six month (10 January to 9 June, 2010) gun ban^[33] where licensed gun holders and certain law enforcers were prohibited from carrying firearms in the public. In April 2010, two months before the ban’s expiration, the PNP chief Director General Jesus Verzosa announced its effectiveness in curbing crime, with 1,790 violators having been arrested and 1,519 unlicensed firearms recovered as of 4 April, 2010. He cited this as a reason to permanently suspend permit to carry firearms outside residence, also known as a PTCFOR which allows civilians to carry concealed firearms in public.^[34] The move was opposed by some members of the press ^[35], firearms advocacy groups and even the president-elect, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III^[36].

Although, at the time of his announcement, Chief Verzosa presented no evidence on how the ban decreased gun-related violence, March 2010 statistics showed that the 2010 election-related violent incidents (ERVI) was 221 percent lower than those in 2007, and 197 percent lower than those in 2004.^[37] However, the Philippine firearms advocacy group PROGUN claimed that the figures were misleading and politically motivated. It pointed out that ERVIs do not take into account the ban’s effect on overall violent crime and its own Gun Ban Statistics Project recorded 436 incidents where 360 were injured and 572 killed between 10 January 2010 and 9 June 2010. ^[38] (Note that PROGUN‘s website says that the figures are dynamically updated as new data is added to their database. The figures reflected on this page may therefore be outdated.)