Firearm News
Caribbean,American Samoa,Niue,Palau,Northern Mariana Islands,Nauru,Cook Islands,Fiji,Micronesia,French Polynesia,Marshall Islands,Kiribati,Papua New Guinea,Samoa,Solomon Islands,Tonga,Tuvalu,Vanuatu,New Caledonia
Addressing Gun Violence in the Caribbean and the Pacific
15 July 2016
The Diplomat (Japan)
"The seas bring us together, they do not separate us."
–Constitution of the Federated States of Micronesia
The Caribbean and the Pacific each offer a unique and contrasting perspective toward addressing armed violence. Despite sharing similar challenges as Small Island Developing States (SIDS), each region faces very different circumstances on the ground. In light of this, each region has taken a different approach toward addressing armed violence. The Pacific stands... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: The Diplomat (Japan)
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Australia,New Zealand,Solomon Islands,Papua New Guinea
Why Australia is Gunning for the Illegal Trade in Weapons
2 June 2014
Australian (Sydney)
Canberra, A.C.T - Illegally traded conventional weapons claim more than half a million victims every year. These weapons kill, maim and disable, undermine economic prosperity and development, and keep millions of people, especially women and children, trapped in fear.
Australia will this week ratify the first legally binding instrument ever negotiated in the UN to establish common standards for the international transfer of conventional arms, the Arms Trade Treaty.
In... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Australian (Sydney)
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Solomon Islands
Authorisation to Carry Guns in Solomon Island's Police Force
25 October 2013
ABC News (Australia)
Planning has begun in Solomon Islands for parts of the local police force to again be issued with guns. It's a major shift in policy, 10 years after a gun amnesty was introduced as part of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands.
RAMSI's Participating Police Force Commander Paul Osborne says only three sections of the force will carry the weapons.
"That'll be airport policing," he told Pacific Beat.
"The close personal protection (unit to protect) visiting... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: ABC News (Australia)
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Solomon Islands
Planning Underway for Re-Introduction of Firearms into Solomons Police
25 October 2013
ABC Radio Australia (Shortwave)
In Solomon Islands, planning is now underway for the local police force to AGAIN be issued with guns.
Although the reintroduction of firearms would be limited, it's still a major shift in policy 10 years after a gun amnesty was part of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands or RAMSI.
The intervention was a regional response to five years of ethnic tensions and there's no doubt some of the bloodshed was caused by the police's own guns which militants had... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: ABC Radio Australia (Shortwave)
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Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands Approves Limited Reintroduction of Firearms for Police
21 October 2013
Scoop (New Zealand), Media release
Cabinet has approved a limited reintroduction of firearms into the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force.
Minister for Police, National Security and Corrections Chris Laore announced the Cabinet decision at the signing of the 5 year RAMSI Drawdown Strategy at the Rove Police Headquarters last Thursday.
Minister Laore said the limited reintroduction of firearms is a capacity development program within the 2013-2017 RAMSI Drawdown Strategy for the Royal Solomon Islands... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Scoop (New Zealand)
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Melanesia,Papua New Guinea,Australia,Solomon Islands,New Caledonia,Oceania
Concern in Papua New Guinea Over Gun-Related Crime, Trafficking
3 September 2012
Inter Press Service News Agency
BRISBANE - In Papua New Guinea, the largest island nation in Melanesia in the southwest Pacific, where more than 60 percent of major crimes involve guns, a burgeoning illegal arms trade is associated with lack of employment growth and low human security, with vulnerable communities suffering the consequences.
This is the case in the autonomous region of Bougainville in the east of the country, where disarmament remains elusive more than ten years after a civil war... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Inter Press Service News Agency
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Oceania,Australia,Solomon Islands,Papua New Guinea,Fiji,United Nations
Guns Threaten Pacific Stability, Ammunition Controls on Way, UN Told
24 June 2009
ABC Radio Australia (Shortwave)
Guns in the Pacific region have the potential to create chaos, economic damage and social disruption, a conference has been told.
The meeting of Pacific Island officials in Sydney was sponsored by the United Nations Disarmament Office and the Australian Government.
The two-day event, which has just wound up, looked at the scale of the problem and initiatives to tackle it.
It was chaired by Mexico's Pablo Macedo, at his first meeting in charge of steering UN... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: ABC Radio Australia (Shortwave)
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Solomon Islands
Total Gun Ban, Weapon Destruction Brings Peace to Troubled Pacific Nation
23 February 2009
BBC News
HONIARA, Solomon Islands — A parliamentary panel in the Solomon Islands, in the South Pacific, is debating the future of an Australian-led peacekeeping force. The UN has praised it as a model of regional intervention — but is its work now done?
The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) is not one of the world's best-known peacekeeping forces.
But the story of how peace has been built here, in this former British protectorate, is largely a story... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: BBC News
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Solomon Islands
Crocodiles Now Seen as More of a Problem in Gun-free Solomon Islands
11 November 2008
Fairfax Media
Peace in the once troubled Solomon Islands is having a tragic side-effect as crocodiles are attacking unarmed villagers.
As a result the international police force in the Pacific nation has gone crocodile hunting and in the last couple of days has killed 11.
The country suffered ethnic conflict in the late 1990s on its main island of Guadalcanal which only ended in 2003 with the military Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) and the Participating... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Fairfax Media
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Solomon Islands,Australia
Compensation Paid for Solomon Islands Gun Buyback
7 November 2008
Radio New Zealand International (Shortwave)
The Solomon Islands Police Minister says the team paying compensation to members of the public who handed in their guns after the ethnic tensions will go out to the provinces involved.
Licensed Solomon Islands gun holders who surrendered their weapons in 2003 to RAMSI have started receiving their compensation from the Police Ministry this week in Honiara.
Government has allocated half a million US dollars for the payments with 1,726 people reportedly eligible for... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Radio New Zealand International (Shortwave)
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Solomon Islands
Six Dead in 18 Months as Crocodiles Enjoy Gun-free Solomon Islands
19 September 2008
ABC Radio Australia (Shortwave)
Attempts to turn Solomon Islands into a gun-free society has had an unintended deadly side effect.
It's lead in part, to an increase in the number of fatal crocodile attacks.
Guns were banned on Solomon Islands following racial tensions and the arrival in 2003 of the Australian lead Regional Assistance Mission, RAMSI.
Solomon Islands Acting Police Commissioner, Peter Marshall, has told Radio Australia at least six people have been killed by crocodiles in the past 18... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: ABC Radio Australia (Shortwave)
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Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands Gun Owners Demand Compensation for 2003 Confiscation
19 May 2008
Solomon Star (Honiara)
Licensed gun holders say the Government must compensate them for the removal of their weapons in 2003.
Hundreds of gun owners surrendered their weapons after RAMSI asked them to do that.
This was part of the disarmament process RAMSI executed immediately after its arrival.
But spokesman Martin Obasia said the Government must compensate them for removing their guns.
He said they purchase their licences to hold guns and they did not use their weapons in the ethnic... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Solomon Star (Honiara)
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