VIENNA - Momentum is gathering for worldwide action on gun control with the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice expected to approve a resolution this week to urge tighter restrictions on gun ownership and export.
The issue of gun control came under the spotlight in Australia and Britain last year following the massacre of 35 people at the Tasmanian tourist resort of Port Arthur and the murder of 17 people, mostly children, at a school in Dunblane, Scotland.
In the first comparative study of its kind from 50 countries a UN report showed that 41 per cent of US households owned at least one gun, compared with 16 per cent in Australia and 4 per cent in Britain. The study showed that some 14 people per 100,000 die annually in the US from firearms related deaths, including homicides, suicides and accidents. That amounts to 37,000 people in a population of 265 million.