• Firearms are used to kill about 1000 people every day
• There are more than 875 million firearms and 75% of them belong to individuals
• Every year 8 million new firearms and 15 billion bullets are produced: 2 bullets per person!
In Turkey (2011):
• The number of guns is estimated to be 9 million
• 12 out of every 100 persons own a gun
• Turkey ranks 14th among 178 countries on armament
• Turkey ranks 31st among 48 countries on transparency about arms trade
• In Turkey, in 14% of murders committed with a gun, registered guns were used
Umut Foundation:
• According to the data of Eurostat Turkey ranks third in homicide rates among European Union member states and those that are in the full membership process.
• Every year, an average of 4500 persons loses their lives by means of individual arms. This means a small scale war.
• In Turkey, the social cost of individual armed violence is estimated to be 5 billion $ annually (including people who lose their lives, their children who are left behind and the parents who have to raise their kids alone, the investigations by security forces to find the criminal, the treatments in health institutions etc.) .
• According to data from the United States, a registered gun is involved in a crime within about 5.7 years after being purchased. That is to say, a registered gun does not mean not committing crime with it!
The research on armed violence events reported in the news between the years 2001-2011 in Turkey:
• In Turkey, during the first half of 2011, armed violence events have been determined to increase by 83% compared to the same period data for the year 2001.
• When the reasons of armed events considered, these are: 23.5% domestic violence, 33.8% consist of friend, acquaintances, family, relatives and affairs of love. 57.3% of armed violence events occur among acquaintances.
• As for the nature of the events, 42.68% of events burst out of sudden arguments. 4.3% of armed events are suicides and 2.40% of events are armed usurpation. Deliberate or planned events are 16.9%.
• 13 out of every 100 persons died of a stray bullet. In many instances, it is remarkable that personal issues are not resolved between two persons, violence event affects the people at the scene and in many events there is more than one victim.
• 64.5% of armed violence events result in death and 29.2% of armed violence events result in wounding. In 67% of events firearms are used while knife ranks second by 28%.
• 44.2% of armed violence events occurred at open areas like road, street and 30.4% of armed violence events occurred at offender's or victim's house.
• Arms are used as a means to resolve disagreements and the solution is to kill. Turkish people have and use the gun to "kill".