The World Forum on The Future of Sport Shooting Activities

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February 2007 Latest News

February 22, 2007

Meeting in Ghana urges civil involvement in gun bans

The first International Consultative Conference on the Implementation of the ECOWAS Small Arms Control Programme (ECOSAP) ended this week in Accra, Ghana. At the meeting, Dr Richard Fung, the United Nations Director for Disarmament for the East African Community, called for civil society to assist governments to address matters relating to firearms. Because of their complexity, he said, no matter how many efforts governments are making, these need to be augmented by special-interest groups drawn from the society at large.

The Conference was structured around ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, of which there are sixteen member countries. The meeting was directed at reinforcing the importance of international agreements relating to Small Arms and Light Weapons. More than two million people have been killed in various conflicts in this sub-region.

The article, at AllAfrica.com , also quotes Dr. Fung as requesting civil groups not to enter the arena just because of the apparent attractiveness of the topic.

President John Agyekum Kufuor at the conference beginning spoke on the trafficking of small arms. Ghana is attempting to survey small arms numbers, and periodic amnesties are being employed to coax people to surrender their guns. Estimates are that there are currently between eight and ten million such arms in the sub-region, and in Ghana in 2006, a total of 675 illicit arms were destroyed.



February 20, 2007

Sport shooting goes to Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's biggest English-circulation newspaper, the Sunday Observer, has reported that the first civilian sport-shooting range was to be opened on February 19, at Hantane, Kandy.

The Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion, represented by Dr. Sarath Amunugama, offered patronage.

Range shooting in Sri Lanka began in 1979. The nation's shooting matches, however, have since then centred round the police and armed forces. Competitors with considerable ability have been identified during that time, but until now there has been no outlet for them because there has been no civilian competition.

The opening of the new civilian range was to be concurrent with a four-day pistol-shooting competition.

Sunday Observer



February 2, 2007

Official in Vermont, USA, criticizes lead in ammunition

The Attorney General of the state of Vermont, William Sorrell, has released a report entitled "Get the Lead Out of Vermont". It attacks standard ammunition used in firearms because of its lead content.

The report is facing heavy criticism on the grounds that it is lacking in research, according to an article in Earthtimes.org. In particular, attention is drawn to the way the report says that lead in ammunition is absorbed by the skin and is consequently unsafe in routine handling. This is not so.

The Managing Director of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute, Rick Patterson, said: "General Sorrell is misrepresenting the issue of lead firearms ammunition. Claims of 'safer' lead substitutes demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of the make-up of ammunition, ballistics and how ammunition affects the environment. Whereas lead has been studied for decades and we know the potential risks and, more importantly, how to manage those risks, the same cannot be said of lead substitutes. Dogmatically promoting the use of any material that isn't lead could create unintended consequences."

Representing the National Association of Shooting Ranges, Dr. Richard Peddicord said, "Encouraging the abandonment of lead ammunition would be without sound basis in science, and would fail to recognize the fact that proven measures are in place for environmentally safe and effective management of lead ammunition."

The World Forum's Symposium on lead in ammunition held in Rome in 2004 found that the potential risks of lead are easily managed with established technology, and the use of policies long since approved by regulators in many countries. The metallic lead used in ammunition, contrary to the Vermont Attorney General's assertion, is not dangerous either to individuals or to animal populations.

Earth Times



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