![]() ![]() Even though studies show that women are more likely to be murdered by a gun than protected by one, more and more women are beginning to buy guns for their own protection - and the vicious spiral goes on. For example, in the US, firearms are used in 59 per cent of the murders of wives and partners by men. There's a gender dimension to this as well which is only gradually emerging. All you need do to purchase one is visit any of the 1,900 blackmarket arms shops in Peshawar. Roughly 90 per cent of these murders are the result of small arms and the weapons are also used in robberies, tribal disputes and sectarian violence. Police statistics from Peshawar in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan show that homicide rates range from 8 per 100,000 in urban areas to 12 per 100,000 in rural areas. Small arms are now so widely and easily available that they are believed to be adding to crime, as well as to injuries and suicides, in many different places. And the sellers are happy to get rid of it since it's just one more commodity to unload. We're willing to buy it because we have a use even for dangerous 'scrap'. And the 'waste' finds its way to us through regular market channels. Weapons find their way to us through legal and illegal routes and end up fuelling small wars and insurgencies. It's also that when there's excess, as after the US attack on Iraq, countries in the South provide convenient dumping grounds. When wars end or well-armed governments collapse, these figures shoot up dramatically - as in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, when the Iraqi people were said to possess between seven and eight million small arms.īut it's not only that small arms are bought and sold. The Small Arms Survey estimates that every year around the world at least a million firearms are stolen or lost from government armouries and from private homes. As production increases, managing stockpiles of small arms becomes a major problem and theft is rampant. Today there are at least 1,259 companies in more than 90 countries manufacturing small arms and light weapons. And some, who cannot afford either of those, make up self-styled militias, using whatever weapons come to hand.Ībout the same time that I read those newspaper stories, I found myself browsing through The Small Arms Survey of 2004, a recently published document which reveals some startling statistics. And then people look for ways to feel more secure - some go out and buy guns, others hire security companies. They cross boundaries, infiltrate people's private lives, create fear and insecurity. Wars are no longer confined to those places where they are fought or to people who actually fight them. Who would have thought the long arm of war could extend so far?īut it does. When death came, it left their families defenceless, resourceless and hungry. They were poor workers, struggling to keep their lives together by earning a meagre wage. The men who died were not even remotely connected with the wars from where these leavings came. The first explosion took place in a scrapyard, the second in a rubbish dump. Not surprisingly it included some live ammunition. As the mystery unravelled it became clear that the scrap had come from Iran and Iraq and was actually the leftovers of war - metal shells, spent bullets, bits of shrapnel and so on. The story was about scrap dealers in Delhi and elsewhere in whose yards bits of scrap metal suddenly started exploding - in one place the explosions actually killed a few workers. But I didn't give it more attention than that until suddenly the news began to fill the pages of all our local newspapers. ![]() I remember reading something a few weeks ago and thinking 'how odd'. Rest in the security He offers.NEWSPAPER headlines sometimes pass you by. God wants you to find your security in Him and Him alone. But when you believe these powerful truths from God, insecurity melts away. You’ll always feel inferior and unsure of yourself. You’ll never have a healthy, Biblical self-image. If you try to overcome insecurity by doing things or impressing people, you’ll never get past it. By receiving the identity that God has given you. By embracing what God says about you in these Bible verses for insecurity. Security comes from leaning into and fully believing this truth. This is the truth, and nothing can change it. Isn’t that good news? You are accepted and loved by God. There is also nothing that will cause Him to love you less. There is nothing you can do to make Him love you more. It is not our perfect love for Him but His perfect love for us that makes the difference. Here is a remarkable fact-He loves you perfectly (1 John 4:18-19). In Christ, you are already accepted in the Beloved. In his book Mastering Your Emotions, Pastor Adrian Rogers said:
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