Sexed Pistols: The Gendered Impacts of Prolific Small Arms

Sexed Pistols: The Gendered Impacts of Prolific Small Arms E day, small arms and light weapons (salw) kill, maim, wound and threaten millions of adults and children. The victims are combatants and civilians in war zones or communities in degraded “peacetime” environments characterized by large-scale criminal or political violence, and can also be found in “societies at peace” where SALW may be used in cases of domestic violence or shooting sprees. Due to their widespread availability, mobility and ease of use, prolific SALW play a significant role in maintaining social dislocation, destabilization, insecurity and crime in the build-up to war, in wartime and in the aftermath of violent conflict. Small arms are misused within domestic settings as well as in public spaces, and they affect everyone in the community regardless of sex or age. Although the impacts of these weapons can be vastly different for women, men, girls and boys, a careful consideration of gender and age has been rare in the formulation of small-arms policy, small-arms collection or control, or even in small-arms research. One important means to counter their effects is to increase our understanding of the role played by prolific SALW in reinforcing and maintaining genderand age-specific violence before, during and after conflict.