Individual armed violence has increased by 66 percent in 6 years

* Photo: strongernc.org

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On the occasion of September 28 Individual Disarmament Day yesterday, the Umut (Hope) Foundation released a statament and raised concerns about increasing armament and resulting escalation of violence in Turkey. The foundation made a call for "disarmament" to the public and "prevention of armament" to the government.

Artists have also joined the campaign launched by the foundation. "Guns have no joke... A gun at home, in car, in waistband kills," they have said.

The campaign has been supported by artists Bülent Şakrak, Belçim Bilgin, Timuçin Esen, Sarp Akkaya, Neslihan Arslan, Cem Bender, Berk Hakman, Deniz Akkaya, Ebru Destan, Gökhan Türkmen, Yiğit Özşener, Aşkın Nur Yengi, Kalben, Esra Bezen Bilgin and Derya Beşerler.

'Everyone must be aware of this issue'

Releasing a statement on the occasion of Individual Disarmament Day, the foundation has indicated that both individual armament and incidents of violence committed with individual firearms have been exponentially increasing in Turkey with every passing year.

"Almost every day, we witness that several innocent living beings are wounded or killed with firearms that can be accessed on the Internet with a single click and delivered to homes," the foundation has protested, adding that "the saddest of all is that the children who play with the guns easily accessed and left randomly in sight by adults become 'murderers by accident' by shooting their siblings, parents or friends."

The foundation has underlined that "everyone must have an awareness about violence and armament" and briefly added the following:

"We, as the Umut Foundation, emphasized years ago that there were at least 25 million guns in Turkey and 85 percent of them were without a license. This armament is increasing day by day. Moreover, the ones who bear arms do this by posing not with a single gun, but with more than one long barreled weapon and posting these images on social media.

"It was just a few days ago that a prominent figure from a religious community alleged on a TV program that there were 2 thousand salafi associations in the country and they were taking up arms. Raising concerns about the armament, he warned, 'These people have pump rifles. They are preparing for a civil war, stop them. İzmir is burning.'

"This shows the scale of uncontrolled individual armament in Turkey and who takes up arms for what purposes. All in all, it is seen that individual armament has reached such an extent that it poses a danger to the security of people as well as the security and future of our country.

'Violence keeps on escalating amid pandemic'

"This year, 2,455 incidents of violence were reported in the press across Turkey from January 1 to September 24, 2020. 2,061 of these incidents of violence were committed with firearms.

"In 2014, when the Umut Foundation did the first statistical study, the number of incidents reported in the press until September 24 was 1,481 in total.

"While the incidents of violence committed with individual firearms has increased by 3 percent in comparison with the same month last year, there has been a striking 66 percent increase in individual armed violence when compared with 2014. Moreover, these figures are recorded amid an epidemic where people have been confined to their homes for months."

Concluding its statement, the foundation has reiterated that "guns have no joke, they kill" and called on the Parliament to review the "Bill on Firearms" and to amend it to ensure that armament will be more difficult.

"We call on the rulers of the country and the MPs of all political parties to act sensitively. Otherwise, every single life and living being killed or wounded as a result of armed violence will be on their head... Penalties must be harsher, they must not be deferred by courts pr turned into fines.

"And we are calling out to the whole public: Guns are not toys. Let's educate our children from their infancy onward and tell them guns are not toys." (HA/SD)