MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union

MISSING PIECES
Southern Highlands, peaked to unprecedented levels between 2001 and
2002. At least 120 men and women, primarily from two tribes, were shot
and killed and hundreds more were intentionally wounded. During previous
inter-group conflicts waged with bows and arrows or bladed weapons,
typically as few as one or two people were seriously or fatally injured. In the
absence of government support, a process of reconciliation was organised
in 2002 by the Mendi Peace Commission, including a number of faithbased
organisations. The informal peace agreement brokered by May 2002
offered closure to three years of violence. Commitments were signed to—
among other things—‘dismiss’ mercenary gunmen, entrust all firearms to
local leaders, cease the public display of offensive guns, and co-operate
with police to restrict alcohol and marijuana abuse. Widely perceived as
dealing with catalysts that influence individual and collective preferences
for gun violence, these provisions might have diminished demand by
increasing public safety and encouraging social controls over rogue elements.
More than five years after its signature during a public ceremony
attended by more than 10,000 people, the Mendi Peace Agreement has
survived without serious breach. 10
The NGO Gun Free South Africa launched the Gun Free Zone (GFZ)
project in 1996 in order to reduce one of the world’s highest firearm homicide
rates. Recognising that gun violence was at epidemic levels in South
Africa, and that formal policing approaches were not working effectively,
the project’s explicit objective was to transform attitudes toward guns by
creating a space in which small arms were stigmatised. In other words, it
sought to raise the social price of guns and thereby reduce the preference
for guns as a means of achieving personal security and status. 11 Some of
these GFZs involve strict enforcement (as in the case of businesses and
government offices), with coercive deterrents (e.g. police), while others rely
on voluntary compulsion (as in the cases of many neighbourhoods and
communities). In the groundbreaking Firearm Control Act of 2000, ‘Firearm
Free Zones’ (FFZs) were authorised, formally building on this work.
Gun Free South Africa has since worked to develop FFZs in 27 schools in
five provinces. The gun-free school project gathered school governing
bodies, teachers, administrators, students, and police in a dialogue to identify
key problems and establish ‘Safety Teams’ to implement appropriate
policies. 12
In 1995, the Boston Police Department, the National Institute of Justice,
and Harvard University initiated the Boston Gun Project to confront
spiralling youth homicide and to serve as a test case for other inner city
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