The media recount stories of violence. Almost two million people a year die from violence, half a million with guns. One tenth of these die at the hands of agents of democratically elected governments, or those financed by them; the rest at the hands of customers of the handful of countries with an arms industry: the United States, Russia, Germany, France, China, Spain and the United Kingdom.While treatments for diarrhoea, malaria, tuberculosis and HIV are reducing the overall rate of death, the rate of violent death is increasing. Violence particularly affects the young, 15-44 year-olds, our children, and predominantly young men, our sons. It is not surprising that children think they can solve their problems with guns; what is surprising is that adults think they can solve theirs with guns. Young men have an innate requirement to prove themselves in order to mate, a need that is as powerful as a young woman's to feed her child. For adults to respect both needs is important. Why do we feed the first need with guns and ammunition ?
