Members of the Society without Violence Coalition in El Salvador have convinced President Elias Antonio Saca to set up a National Commission to review the gun laws, incorporating representatives from the coalition. The Commission will recommend improvements to a proposed new gun law.

The coalition presented its research on gun homicides and the cost to the national public health system of small arms violence: treatment of gunshot wounds uses up more than 7% of the public hospital system’s budget. Click here to read the press release (in Spanish).

Several IANSA members belong to the coalition, which includes Médicos Salvadoreños para la Responsabilidad Social (MESARES, IPPNW - El Salvador), Fundación para el Estudio y Aplicacion del Derecho (FESPAD), Instituto Universitario de Opinión Pública (IUDOP), the Technology University, Radio station UPA, the Tin Marin Children’s Museum and the UN Development Program (UNDP). Click here to read the report summary ‘Firearms and Violence in El Salvador’ (in Spanish).