WFSA Current News - November, 2004
 

November 21, 2004

Japan to change official stance on arms exports
            An editorial in the Japanese Asahi.com has been headed: “Government must not rush to alter the status quo”. The Japanese government has taken considerable pride in its stand on international disarmament, and until now there has been no suggestion of any policy change.
            Now, the editorial asks: “Does the government have the right to relax Japan 's three principles prohibiting the export of weapons so easily without clear explanation?”
            The administration of the Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, has indicated a new defence program is to be adopted next month. It is expected to change longstanding principles banning arms exports from the country.
            A missile defence system is to be jointly developed by Japan and the USA. The two countries will combine in this and other weapons production, and Japan also intends to allow arms exports with the intention to combat terrorism and also pirates in its region.
            The article says that the government of Japan fears being left out of the movement to more sophisticated and recently-developed weaponry, and is consequently moving towards partnerships of arms development with other nations, on the lines common in the west.
            The editorial decries the change, saying that the majority of Japanese citizens are not in favour of either selling arms to other countries, or joining with them in development programs.
            Japan, of course, has had a long history of the manufacture for export of sporting arms under licence, and this is usually overlooked in discussion of its official stance on the issue of arms.
            http://www.asahi.com/english/opinion/TKY200411220112.html

November 16, 2004

Papua New Guinea editorial
          The National in Papua New Guinea has applauded the formal approval given by Cabinet to set up a body with the responsibility to examine all aspects of gun ownership in that country. A summit meeting is to be arranged in 2005 to examine both the criminal and lawful use of guns. A local person is to be appointed to head the committee.
            The editorial (http://www.thenational.com.pg/1115/editorial1.htm) stresses the need for local knowledge to be established in the committee.
            The article goes on to point to the problems of illegal firearms which enter the country through smuggling. It also indicates that there are large and well established groups of middle-men who are able to provide illegal arms on short notice to anyone with sufficient money.
            The third group of illegal guns is composed of the home-made variety, which vary in effectiveness and quality.

November 11, 2004

No economic assessment of South Africa’s gun laws
            Business Day in Johannesburg today released an article saying that the Safety and Security Minister, Charles Nqakula, has agreed that no economic impact assessment has been made of South Africa’s new gun laws.
            The Minister evidently went even further, saying no changes would be considered on economic grounds.
            He is quoted as saying: "The Firearms Control Act has made provisions for firearm dealers, the professional hunting industry, the film industry and the private security industry to be regarded as business entities. It is the responsibility of these entities to adapt their business models to comply with the provisions of firearms control legislation and to comply with their social responsibility as South Africans".
            The South African gun laws of course rely heavily on gun registration, in accordance with the current trend in world legislation. This website carries a substantial amount of information about the difficulties faced by the Canadian gun registry, and it is now no secret that the cost blowout is extreme.
            Facing questioning, the Minister is quoted as saying the legislation has been put in place to “control the supply, possession, safe storage, transfer and use of firearms and to detect and punish the negligent or criminal use of firearms”. There is still no evidence that gun registration has any positive effect whatsoever in lowering murder and other violent crime rates.
            The new gun registry in South Africa, meanwhile, goes on suffering widespread criticism for its wholesale rejection of firearm licence applications, along with insufficient facilities for the testing of applicants.

November 6, 2004

Commission into small arms in Sri Lanka
            A national commission into small arms has been appointed in Sri Lanka, following a United Nations resolution. The Secretary of the Ministry of Public Security, Law and Order, Tilak Ranaviraja, has been appointed chairman.
            The purpose of the commission is to formulate and then implement a program of public awareness to obtain “ …maximum cooperation in preventing, combating and eradicating the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons; to collect illicit arms and light weapons; to examine the adequacy of punitive measures currently in force and to propose amendments where necessary; to formulate a rewards system for informants and a scheme under which amnesty could be granted to those who surrender illicit arms and light weapons; to obtain assistance from independent technical experts and NGOs when necessary; to identify sources of supply of illicit arms and small weapons; and to suggest ways of effectively curbing such trafficking.”

November 6, 2004

English psychologist: boys should play with toy guns
            Penny Holland, senior lecturer in early childhood studies at London Metropolitan University, has released a book, We Don’t Play with Guns Here, saying there is no evidence to believe that boys grow up and make aggressive men if they play violent games in childhood. Speaking of games about war, Holland said: "It is very much part of them making sense of the world. It relates to timeless themes of the struggle between good and evil. It seems to represent a developmental need to play with these things and my feeling is that it is counter-productive to work against that.”
            In contrast, she says, boys who are banned from playing games about soldiers and pirates may become disruptive.
            An article on the book in The Scotsman by Murdo MacLeod and Scott McCulloch (http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=763492003&rware=PWTCOLYKOFOV&CQ_CUR_DOCUMENT=1) publishes a comment from another Scottish psychologist, Helen Fraser of Edinburgh. Fraser agrees with the thrust of the work, and goes on to say that the actual play of young children is far less harmful to them than the effect of violence on television and video games.
            Holland has pointed to elevated creativity and closer friendships noted among children who have played in nurseries that do not have bans on toy guns and swords. In addition, she points to some evidence that such nurseries have found a drop in real violence between boys who play this way.