"We have suffered a lot because of these guns ... we are used to bows and arrows, but this newly-introduced culture has destroyed us," Julie Soso, leader of community women's groups, Papua New Guinea – click here to read an interview with Julie.

In the past 12 years in Papua New Guinea, as tribal fighters upskilled rapidly from bows and arrows to assault rifles, the lethality of conflict, particularly in the strife-torn PNG Highlands, soared accordingly. Illicit small arms are now seen as perhaps the major hurdle to human security, adequate health and education, and prosperity.

At the Papua New Guinea Gun Summit, held in the Eastern Highlands provincial capital of Goroka from 4-8 July, the PNG government's Guns Control Committee reported on its 'Guns Road Show.' On the move almost non-stop for three months, the six-member committee and its staff visited every settlemant of any size in this country of more than five million people, asking all sectors of society for their opinions on firearms in PNG. Although the result was an overwhelming call to ban guns, the Guns Committee interprets this as allowing limited gun ownership for approved purposes such as subsistence hunting, security guards and gun clubs.

In a recent Small Arms Survey report by IANSA member Philip Alpers, the real arms traffickers in PNG are shown to be much closer to home than the 'foreign gun-runners' so often blamed by public figures. Politicians and civil servants are deeply implicated in the small arms trade, with each election seen as an opportunity to seize votes, political influence, and resources at gunpoint. Very few assault weapons found in the Highlands were smuggled from foreign countries. Instead, police and soldiers within PNG supplied the most destructive firearms used in crime and conflict. Police ammunition is routinely sold to tribal fighters and to criminals.

Although Southern Highlanders own 30-50 times fewer factory-made firearms per capita than nearby Australians or New Zealanders, their high-powered weapons are obtained almost exclusively for use against humans. As a result, an illicit, factory-made firearm in the Southern Highlands is several times more likely to be used in homicide than a similar gun in the world's highest-risk countries, namely Ecuador, Jamaica, Colombia, and South Africa.

Particularly in Papua New Guinea, illicit guns are seen as a serious impediment to recovery and redevelopment. In the Pacific, there is now broad consensus among governments, donor agencies, and civil society that disarmament and the security or destruction of small arms are essential prerequisites for human security, good health, and prosperity. In recent months, the focus of this new urgency has moved to PNG.

IANSA members attending the Gun Summit included Philip Alpers (School of Public Health, University of Sydney) and Raymond Ton, of Caritas PNG (both IANSA Pacific members), and Daniell Cowley from Oxfam New Zealand.

Click here to download the Small Arms Survey report 'Gun-running in Papua New Guinea: from arrows to assault weapons in the Southern Highlands'