The Acting Director of Sierra Leone Action Network on Small Arms (SLANSA), Abu Bakarr Sheriff, has said at a press conference held on Monday 29th May 2006 that a thousand people die every day and many more are seriously injured because of guns, adding that if the death injury and disability resulting from small arms were categorized as a disease, he would have viewed it as an epidemic, a man-made vector or disease that is manifestly bad for human beings.

According to a news report released by the International Action Network on Small Arms the global proliferation of small arms and light weapons (guns) represents an epidemic, which should be addressed as urgently as Avian flu.

The report titled, Bringing the global gun Crisis under control sets out the scale of the small arms threat which affects every country in the world and results in the deaths of one thousand people a day.

"With six hundred and forty (640) Million guns already in the world and eighty million new one produced each year, there are enough weapons to equip one in every ten people on the planet," he lamented, adding that of these, the majority are in the hands of civilians which has outnumbered those held by the armed forces and government.

Ten to fourteen billion rounds of ammunitions are produced annually, which is sufficient to shoot every person in the world.

There are no laws binding guns transfer from one state to another he said, adding that every minute every day a gun kills someone.

The report continues that one in three countries spends more on the military than on health care and sixteen billion rounds of ammunition are manufactured every year that at least for every man, woman, and children on the planet.

However many countries around the world are now reforming their own domestic legislation to deal with the scourge of guns and the world's governments will meet at the United Nations in New York between 26 June and 7 July this year to review their agreement form 2001 adding that this is the time to act.

"The guns epidemic continues to be unabated, the international community has failed to address it as a crisis," Mr.Sheriff noted.

The National Chairman on Small Arms, Larry Basise, in his statement said that the uncontrolled spread of small arms in the world in may regions of the world has a wide range of humanitarian and socio-economic consequences and poses a serious threat to the peace, security, stability and sustainable development at the individual, local, national, regional and international levels.

The government of Sierra Leone, he said, is a signatory to the UN programme of action on illicit trade manufacture, transfer and circulation of small arms and also signatory to the ECOWAS moratorium on small arms which is now on the verge of been converted to a legally binding convention.

"The government of Sierra Leone being aware of the dangers associated with the illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons support the Sierra Leone Action Network on small arms in this their week of action and indeed IANSA in launching the global campaign to curb the menace of small arms proliferation," he concluded.