MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union
MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union
MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union
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<strong>MISSING</strong> <strong>PIECES</strong><br />
THEME 3 CONSIDERING THE NEEDS OF GUN<br />
VIOLENCE SURVIVORS<br />
Debates on how arms control efforts should be strengthened<br />
consistently fail to acknowledge or address the needs of those<br />
who survive gun violence. This is not tangential to the small<br />
arms control agenda, rather it drives to the heart of efforts<br />
seeking to reduce the human cost of gun violence and is an area where<br />
parliamentarians can be particularly engaged. As used here, the term ‘survivors’<br />
describes two broad groupings of people: those who themselves have<br />
been physically injured, intimidated or brutalised through armed violence;<br />
and those who are related to, love, work with, care for or are otherwise negatively<br />
impacted upon by someone who has been a victim of gun violence.<br />
Policymaking on gun control can and should be essentially preventive—<br />
with the primary goal of reducing gun violence and injury occurring in<br />
the first place. Yet despite best efforts at numerous levels, gun violence is<br />
likely to be a feature of human relations and landscapes for years to come.<br />
So in addition to preventive work, it is essential that the needs of existing<br />
and future survivors and the people who care for them are appropriately<br />
considered and addressed.<br />
This theme provides an overview of what can be termed ‘victim assistance’<br />
for survivors of armed violence, and highlights ways to incorporate<br />
this overlooked issue into the national and global agendas on weapons<br />
control. 1 Unlike many of the themes in Missing Pieces, assistance for gun<br />
violence survivors is in a sense ‘at square one,’ confounded by a significant<br />
absence of research and policy-relevant information and complicated by<br />
the variety of settings in which armed violence occurs. This theme therefore<br />
seeks to introduce broad areas for consideration.<br />
THE GROWING BURDEN OF GUN INJURIES<br />
Violence, including homicide and suicide, and other injuries account for<br />
9 per cent of global mortality and are a leading cause of disability. 2 According<br />
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