Education for gun owners has become critical – Small Arms Commission

The National Commission for Small Arms and Light Weapons says reports of accidental deaths through guns calls for education on the proper ways to handle arms.

Executive Secretary of the Commission, Jones Borteye Aplerh, says a recent incident at Somanya in the Eastern Region in which a four-year-old boy was accidentally shot dead by his six-year-old brother points to the need for proper training for gun owners.

The deceased 4-year-old, Alex Ologo Amanor, and his brother were said to be playing in their grandfather’s room when the incident occurred.

Related: Grandfather of 4-year-old boy shot by brother, charged
“What the Eastern Region case revealed is the need for the Small Arms Commission and the police to begin some kind of education because if you are a trained bearer of a firearm, you have to have a safe and secure place to keep it. You don’t keep a loaded magazine…and you leave it there. That is a no-no.

“It is one the things that gun ownership abhors. You don’t keep a loaded gun and you leave it there no matter what the threat or the perceived danger is,” he said on MultiTV’s current affairs programme, PM Express on Monday.

The programme focused on the proliferation of small arms in Ghana.

Available statistics show that over two million Ghanaians are in possession of small arms.
The survey estimates that there are 2.3 million guns in civilian hands in Ghana.

Out of this number, the Police Firearms Bureau registered 1,236,128 weapons issued to civilians between 1981 and 2013.

Also, in the last ten years, less than 35,000 weapons issued to civilians by the police were renewed each year.




In 2005, licences for 61,778 weapons were renewed.
In Ghana, licenses to bear arms are renewable after every December 31 of each year.

The survey was conducted by the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) on behalf of the Ghana National Commission for Small Arms and Light Weapons, with final and technical assistance from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Government of Japan.

Speaking on PM Express, Mr Aplerh said it has become a status symbol for the typical Ghanaian to own a gun, a situation he finds alarming.

With reports of gun attacks and armed robbery on the rise, Mr Aplerh said there is a need for a critical look at the situation.

Watch the full programme in the video below.

Source:Myjoyonline