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Alpers, Philip. 2005 ‘Reducing Demand.’ Gun-running in Papua New Guinea: From arrows to assault weapons in the Southern Highlands; Special Report No. 5, pp. 117-118. Geneva: Small Arms Survey, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. 1 July

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Reducing Demand

In a recent survey in the Southern Highlands, 75 per cent of respondents said their motivation for firearm ownership was self-protection from enemies, while 25 per cent cited payback (i.e. retaliation, or extracting compensation, or both). Four per cent reported personal gun possession for criminal use. Over 60 per cent would buy firearms if they could, while 66 per cent said guns made them safer (Muggah, 2004).

In remote parts of the Southern Highlands, wild pigs, cassowaries, and other game are shot for food and adornment. Yet in the present study, which covered high-population rural areas, no person interviewed gave hunting as a tertiary, let alone a primary, reason for gun ownership. Without exception, informants made it clear that they acquired high-powered firearms for the sole purpose of intimidating, injuring, or killing human beings (Alpers, 2004).

ID: Q671

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