Mark Barnes offers legal services to clients who need representation before the federal executive and legislative branches of government on regulatory or policy matters.

Mr. Barnes served for over three years as Counsel to the Secretary for Drug Abuse Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. He was appointed to that post by then-Secretary Louis W. Sullivan in July 1989.

As Counsel, Mr. Barnes served as the special legal advisor to the Secretary on program and policy matters regarding illegal drug use. Mr. Barnes was involved in significant policies and regulations on a wide variety of sensitive and often highly controversial drug abuse issues. Among these issues were drug free workplace programs and drug testing, state and local prevention efforts, drug abuse research, drug treatment and the development of four National Drug Control Strategies. While at HHS, Mr. Barnes worked successfully with senior government officials, Congress, and national interest groups to resolve numerous program and policy controversies.

Mr. Barnes served as the Associate Director for the Administration Group at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) from January 1988 to July 1989. He directed 500 employees and a 32 million dollar budget for OPM's information management, personnel, fiscal, budgetary, facilities, real estate, and acquisition programs. Mr. Barnes also had lead policy responsibility for coordinating OPM's responsibilities under the President's Drug-Free Federal Workplace Program. Mr. Barnes entered his first federal executive branch position as the Deputy General Counsel at OPM where he carried out legal advisory duties for the Director of OPM on various legal matters concerning labor, civil rights, and pay and performance issues.

Prior to his experience in the executive branch of the federal government, Mr. Barnes was an Associate at Davis Wright and Jones in Anchorage, Alaska, one of the largest law firms in the Pacific Northwest, where he practiced commercial litigation and admiralty law.

Mr. Barnes' legislative background is often important to assisting clients with policy and legislative matters. He served as Chief Counsel to Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) in Washington, D.C. where he handled a wide range of tax, small business, banking, judiciary and ethics issues.

Mr. Barnes received his Juris Doctor degree from the UCLA School of Law in 1981 and his Bachelor of Science degree in political science from Arizona State University in 1978 where he graduated summa cum laude and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He is admitted to practice before several state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States.

More Education, Less Legislation

Laws and regulations differ by country, but the need for firearms safety is global. Firearms safety critically depends on the behavior of gun owners, regardless of where they live. Risk factors grow out of the particular circumstances of individuals in society and the extent of their responsible behavior. But no amount of responsible behavior can totally prevent accidents. And unfortunately, in the United States, some state governments now punish such accidents with criminal, as well as civil, penalties. This paper will argue that teaching people to use their guns safely and encouraging them to follow safe practices is a more effective way of preventing injuries than any regulatory regime. In support of this argument, this paper will review the findings from a number of studies that focus on unintentional gun injuries. These studies show that gun related accidents causes fewer injuries than other risks and that appropriate educational programs promote appropriate handling and reduce these injuries. This paper will conclude that any country would be better served by more education, and less legislation.

Associate Professor Annette Beautrais is Principal Investigator with the Canterbury Suicide Project at the Christchurch School of Medicine & Health Sciences. In this role she has conducted research on various aspects of suicidal behaviour since 1991.

Firearms Legislation and Reductions in Firearm-Related Suicide Deaths in New Zealand

Objective: To examine the impact of introducing more restrictive firearms legislation (Amendment to the Arms Act, 1992) in New Zealand on suicides involving firearms.

Method: National suicide data were examined for eight years before, and 10 years following, the introduction of the legislation.

Results: After legislation, the mean annual rate of firearm-related suicides decreased by 46% for the total population (p<.0001), 66% for youth (15-24 years) (p<.0001) and 39% for adults (25 years) (p<.01). The fraction of all suicides accounted for by firearm-related suicides also reduced for all three populations (p<.0001). However, the introduction of firearms legislation was not associated with reductions in overall rates of suicide for all three populations.

Conclusions: Following the introduction of legislation restricting ownership and access to firearms, firearm-related suicides significantly decreased, particularly amongst youth. Overall rates of youth suicide also decreased over this time but it is not possible to determine the extent to which this was accounted for by changes in firearms legislation or other causes.

David Capie teaches International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He graduated with degrees in law and political science from Victoria and completed an M.A. at the Australian National University and a Ph.D in International Relations at York University in Toronto. His research interests focus on conflict and security issues, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. David's recent books include The Asia-Pacific Security Lexicon (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 2002), Small Arms Production and Transfers in Southeast Asia (ANU, Canberra, 2002) and Under the Gun: The Small Arms Challenge in the Pacific (Victoria University Press, Wellington, 2003). He has carried out field research on small arms trafficking in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific and has presented the findings of his research at international conferences in Europe, West Africa, Canada and the United States. His research has been funded by a number of international organisations, including the Rockefeller Foundation.

Small Arms Research in the Pacific Islands

This paper provides an overview of the state of research on illicit small arms trafficking in the South Pacific. Despite some alarming headlines, the Pacific is not plagued by the kind of illicit weapons flows that have affected other parts of the globe. Apart from Papua New Guinea, the region is also comparatively free from gun violence and armed conflict. However, the misuse and proliferation of illicit firearms is a growing concern. Weak state institutions and limited capacities to enforce existing laws means that the present situation cannot be taken for granted. The collapse of the Solomon Islands between 1998 and 2003 shows how quickly the uncontrolled circulation of a small number of military weapons can reduce a country to near anarchy.

Effectively combating the illicit small arms challenge in the Pacific requires comprehensive and sustained policies by governments within in the region and help from the international community. Addressing the problem should begin with improved firearms laws, secure armouries and improved weapons controls, but it will ultimately require a long-term commitment to improving levels of governance and strengthening state capacity throughout the region.

Due to injury an overview of David Capie's paper will be presented in absentia.

Wally Cole was born in NZ in 1947 and is married with three children and seven grandchildren. Educated at Horowhenua College, Levin followed by eight years with the Royal New Zealand Navy. On leaving the Navy he joined the New Zealand Department of Corrections, retiring from the service in 2004 after 32 years. Wally is currently employed by Wanganui based Ordnance Developments Ltd as Operations Manager.

Wally's main interest in firearms has been in competitive pistol shooting, holding various positions/roles within Pistol New Zealand including 6 years as National President and as Team manager/Coach to the Commonwealth Games in Scotland 1986.

Wally has been an active member of Pistol NZ since 1978 and still today maintains a heavy involvement with Shooting Range Development and Certification for pistol, rifle and shotgun organisations. Wally is a Director of Range Development Associates a Private company that has been involved with approving training ranges for the NZ police Wally is also the editor for the Pistol NZ National magazine which is published bi-monthly and made available to all members, he has also re-written the Pistol NZ Range Development manual and drafted the New NZ Police Range Manual.

Wally Cole's on-range presentation will be supported by Major Chris Lawrence's presentation.

Colin Greenwood served for five years in the Coldstream Guards, in London and in North Africa and then completed twenty-five years service in the West Yorkshire Police serving primarily in the uniform branch in both rural and urban areas and retiring with the rank of Superintendent. During his police career he was involved in the selection of firearms, ammunition and related equipment for police use and in designing and implementing a new system of firearms training based on the current needs of the UK at that time. The system was subsequently widely adopted in the UK and has been further developed. He is the author of three books on police firearms training.

From an early age he has been involved with the private use of firearms and has shot competitively with smallbore and fullbore rifles, pistols of all calibres and shotguns. Live quarry hunting has extended from game birds and small game such as rabbits to big game in many parts of the world. Colin is also a keen handloader and a collector of firearms and cartridges, specialising in British rook rifles. His book The Classic British Rook Rifle is to be published by Safari Press.

In 1969 he was awarded a research fellowship at Cambridge University, Institute of Criminology, to study the development of firearms legislation and its effects on the use of firearms in crime, accidents and suicide. The results of this research were reported in a book Firearms Control (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1972). He has continued to research this field and has written extensively on the subject.

He is currently in business as a freelance firearms consultant specialising in forensic firearms examination and as a research consultant to major shooting organisations. He is frequently involved in working groups with the Home Office, police, Health and Safety Executive and others. He has acted as specialist advisor to one UK Parliamentary Select Committee and has given written and oral evidence to other such Committees and enquiries.

The British Handgun Ban Logic, Politics and Effect

In March 1996, Thomas Hamilton went to a primary school in Dunblane with two 9mm pistols, two revolvers and over 700 rounds of ammunition, all of which were licensed to him by the local police. He killed one teacher and sixteen children and wounded three adults and ten children. He then shot himself.

The outrage generated a media-led campaign to ban handguns. In July 1997, a ban on all centre fire handguns was imposed by the Conservative Government in the face of the conclusions of a public inquiry and a Parliamentary Select Committee report. Later that year the ban was extended to all pistols by an incoming Labour Government.

The ban has been cited by gun control activists around the world as setting a 'gold standard' for gun control. It is cited by proponents of gun ownership as a knee jerk reaction that has done nothing to safeguard the public, but has punished thousands of innocent people.

The real effects of the handgun ban cannot be seen in isolation and in this paper the imposition of controls on firearms in Britain are examined from their beginning in 1920 to the present time. That examination reveals a catalogue of panic legislation. In no case has there been any logical evaluation of the problems. Every piece of legislation has been 'political' in the most pejorative sense of that word.

Serious armed crime was increasing before the handgun ban was imposed and the 1997 legislation had no discernable impact on the rate of increase. The paper concludes that in terms of promoting public safety, the ban on handguns was "a pathetic irrelevance".

  

Chris has served in the New Zealand Army for 32 years, working in most ranks to his current appointment as General Staff Officer Grade II – Weapons and Range Safety, in the rank of Major. He is responsible for advising the Land Component Commander of the New Zealand Joint Force Headquarters, Assistant Chief of General Staff (Policy and Plans), and the Director of Army Training, on weapons and range safety policy, training, and technical matters.

In addition to his primary responsibilities he has also been called on to provide weapons and range safety advice for the Royal New Zealand Navy, Royal New Zealand Air Force, New Zealand Police and various other shooting associations and clubs.

He is a current member of the International Range Safety Advisory Group, an observer to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Range Safety Working Group, a New Zealand Mountain Safety Council appointed Advisor in Firearm Safety, and a New Zealand Police recognised Range Inspecting Officer.

Chris will provide a presentation on live firing range design and construction at the International Firearms Safety Seminar.

Chris' presentation will be supported by an on-range presentation by Wally Cole.

John R. Lott, Jr. is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Lott has held positions at the University of Chicago, Yale University, Stanford, UCLA, Wharton, and Rice and was the chief economist at the United States Sentencing Commission during 1988 and 1989. Lott has published over 90 articles in academic journals. He is the author of The Bias Against Guns, More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws, and Are Predatory Commitments Credible?: Who Should the Courts Believe? He is currently completing books on the judicial confirmation process and the importance of reputations in deterring criminals. He received his Ph.D. in economics from UCLA in 1984.

Guns at Home: To Lock or Not to Lock

It is frequently assumed that safe storage gun laws reduce accidental gun deaths and total suicides, while the possible impact on crime rates are ignored. However, given existing work on the adverse impact of other safety laws, such as safety caps for storing medicine, even the very plausible assumption of reduced accidental gun deaths cannot be taken for granted. This research analyzes both state and county data spanning twenty years, but it finds no support that safe storage laws reduce either juvenile accidental gun deaths or suicides. Instead, these storage requirements appear to impair people's ability to use guns defensively. Because accidental shooters also tend to be the ones most likely to violate the new law, safe storage laws increase violent and property crimes against low risk citizens with no observable offsetting benefit in terms of reduced accidents or suicides. During the first five full years after the passage of the safe storage laws, the group of fifteen states that adopted these laws faced an annual average increase of over 280 more murders, 3,469 more rapes, 27,477 more robberies, and over 55,674 more aggravated assaults. The change in aggravated assaults was statistically insignificant. On average, the annual costs borne by victims averaged over $2 billion as a result of lost productivity, out-of-pocket expenses, medical bills, and property losses.

     

Gary Mauser is a full professor, in the Institute for Canadian Urban Research Studies, and the Faculty of Business Administration, Simon Fraser University, Canada. He earned his doctorate in Psychology from the University of California, Irvine.

He has written two books and over 30 academic publications in criminology, economics, and political science. He has testified before the Supreme Court of Canada and the Canadian Parliament on firearms issues.

Professor Mauser was trained in quantitative methods, survey research, and interdisciplinary social science. In his early career he analyzed electoral campaign strategy. In mid-career, he studied the linkage between public opinion and governmental policy. For the past 25 years, he has focused on analyzing attitudes towards gun control and evaluating firearms legislation.

Hubris in The North: The Canadian Firearms Registry

This paper is a preliminary effort to evaluate the effects of the 1998 firearm registry on public safety. The Federal Government saw the firearm registry as crucial for reducing criminal violence and for saving lives. The government's approach to public safety relied upon an unscientific analysis of firearms and violence that, as a result of its acceptance of public health research, greatly exaggerated the dangers of lawful firearm ownership. In this paper I criticize public health research methods as being moralistic and pseudoscientific. The Federal Government's approach to public safety is compared with a provincial program that is more consultative.

The results show that since the firearm registry was implemented, the number of firearm owners has significantly declined, as well as the number of firearm crimes and the number of firearms-related deaths. Nevertheless, public safety cannot be said to have improved because overall criminal violence and suicide rates remain stubbornly stable. The violent crime rate has declined by only 4% since the registry was implemented, but the homicide rate has actually increased by more than 3%. Perhaps the most striking change is that gang-related homicides and homicides involving handguns have increased substantially. Overall suicide rates have declined by just 2% since the registry began. Despite a drop in suicides involving firearms, hangings have increased nearly cancelling out the drop in firearm suicides. No persuasive link can be found between the firearm registry and any of these small changes. In comparison, the provincial hunter-safety program has more modest goals, i.e., to reduce hunting and firearm accidents, but limited evidence suggests that it is effective in actually saving lives.

In conclusion, no convincing empirical evidence can be found that the firearm program has improved public safety. For the first seven years, the firearms registry had virtually unlimited annual budgets, but violent crime and suicide rates remain virtually unchanged. Despite costing an estimated C$ 2 billion to date, the firearms registry remains notably incomplete and has an error rate that remains high. As a result of its many failures, particularly its failure to reduce gang violence, the firearms registry has failed to win the trust of either the public or the police.

Selected publications:
"An Assessment of Canada's 1995 Firearm Legislation Ten Years Later." Journal of Firearms and Public Policy, (In press). "An Evaluation of the 1977 Canadian Firearms Legislation: Robbery Involving a Firearm." Applied Economics, Vol. 35, March 2003, 423-436. (With professor Dennis Maki). The Failed Experiment: Gun Control and Public Safety in Canada, Australia, England and Wales, Public Policy Sources, No. 71, The Fraser Institute, Vancouver, BC. November 2003. Canadian Attitudes Toward Gun Control: The Real Story, The Mackenzie Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. February 1997. (With professor Taylor Buckner).

Dr Jenny Mouzos is a Senior Research Analyst at the Australian Institute of Criminology and she is also the Program Manager of the Crime Monitoring Program Program. She has a PhD in Criminology from the University of Melbourne, and has published extensively in the areas of homicide, the use of firearms in crime, armed robbery, and violence against women.

An Overview of Firearms Theft in Australia

The theft of firearms poses a potential threat to society as they may result in some firearms being linked to injury, violence or criminal activities. Without the collection of accurate and detailed information on the nature of firearms theft, it is difficult to determine the level of risk posed by stolen firearms. This presentation provides an overview of the circumstances and characteristics of firearms theft in Australia based on data collected over a six-month period in 2004. It examines details of the types of firearms stolen, locations vulnerable to theft, the modus operandi of the offenders, as well as the level of compliance in the secure storage of firearms by their owners. Future directions for policy and practice will also be discussed.

Carol Nelson is based in Wellington and works in international development, primarily in the Pacific sub-region known as Melanesia. In 2004 she undertook a study of the Weapons Free Village Campaign in Solomon Islands. The research was commissioned by the Geneva NGO the Small Arms Survey. The campaign was one of several disarmament mechanisms being employed at the time, aimed mainly at harnessing increasing public intolerance of weapons after several years of bloody civil conflict. In July 2005 the research was presented to the PNG National Gun Control Summit as a model of community voluntary disarmament.

Over the past year Carol has made regular visits to Solomon Islands providing technical assistance to the National Council of Women in the area of organisational strengthening. In 2001 she worked for the UN for four months in East Timor, on the first free election and in 1998-99 worked in Vanuatu as an advisor to the National Council of Women.

Women and Disarmament: What can be learnt from conflicts in Solomon Islands, Bougainville and PNG?

Women are under-utilised in peace and reconciliation processes. Women have an important role to play in establishing and maintaining peace and in stigmatising weapons abuse. All too frequently women are excluded from a formal role and find themselves initiating informal peace and disarmament activities as a result of the devastation they witness.

At the height of the recent civil tension in Solomon Islands women in Honiara formed Women for Peace, a non-aligned, multi-ethnic group with the aim of restoring peace and pursuing reconciliation. One of the objectives of Women for Peace was “to convince the fighting parties to lay down their arms and thus open the way to democracy and good governance in Solomon Islands” [1] . These women held meetings with militants and crossed fighting lines to take essential items to families innocently caught up in the tension. They were also effective in drawing attention to the social and human consequences of the fighting. Yet, despite their active role and the understanding they had developed of the situation, they and others of civil society were excluded from the negotiations that eventually brought a form of peace [2].

Women played an equal role in the Weapons Free Village campaign which was aimed at encouraging villages to voluntarily disarm. The campaign relied on positive peer pressure, both within communities and between neighbouring villages. Women who worked as National Peace Council monitors were particularly effective at encouraging villages to join the campaign.

Similarly in Bougainville women played a powerful role in ending weapons violence and restoring peace. Already in the Eastern Highlands of PNG the Kup Women for Peace 'use their tears as weapons for peace' to bring an end to tribal fighting [3].

This presentation will explore some of the contributions that women have made to disarmament in recent conflicts in Solomon Islands, Bougainville and Papua New Guinea, and how lessons learned can be applied more widely.

Footnotes:
1. Pollard, 2000, p 53
2. UN Common Country Assessment, 2002 p 55
3. Garap, 2005, p 11.

As its managing director, Rick Patterson leads the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI). Since 1926 SAAMI has been dedicated to promoting all aspects of fiream safety. One of SAAMI's primary functions includes the creation of safety and quality standards related to the manufacture, transportation and storage of firearms, ammunition and components. Patterson also directs the National Association of Shooting Ranges and all facility development programs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. An accomplished author, editor and producer, Patterson communicates frequently on issues related to firearm and ammunition assembly, use, safety, promotion, environmental management, and regulation of both domestic and international scope. He has addressed trade conferences worldwide, all levels of legislative bodies, courts, and assemblies of the United Nations. He is a recipient of the US Environmental Protection Agency's prestigious "Environmental Excellence Award." An avid hunter, shooter and angler, Patterson is personally active in wildlife conservation. In his home state of Connecticut, his efforts helped establish new precedents in case law balancing municipal water rights with ecosystem health.

The Firearm Safety Equation

Firearm safety and safety education focus on the prevention of accidents. Accidents are unintended events, typically a chain of events, that lead to unplanned and unwanted outcomes. Safety has two components: design and operating procedures. Setting standards to ensure that firearms and ammunition work in harmony is what the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute (SAAMI) is all about. Since 1926, SAAMI has established the standards that ensure safety and reliability. On the operating procedures side, there are only 10 simple rules to safe operations of a firearm. Communicating safe operating procedures to the public can be difficult. The media spends more time on the unrelated issue of the willful mis-use of a firearm to intentionally cause harm to another or to ones-self. The firearms industry and its partners in the United States have found ways to get the message out and have been very successful in their efforts to prevent unintentional consequences.

Rod Slings is in his 33rd year with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR). He currently supervises six specialized recreational safety officers (RSOs) in the Law Enforcement Bureau, and oversees the DNR's safety education programs, including Hunter Education. The RSOs serve as technical investigators to the 81 field conservation officers in hunting related shootings.

Slings' first training in hunting incident investigation came in 1987 from Homer Moe, from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, then a national leader in hunting related investigations. Slings used that training to successfully investigate hunting related shootings in Iowa, and to learn why and how they occurred. In 1993, Moe asked Slings to help with the first Hunting Incident Investigation Academy at Central Missouri State University (CMSU) in Warrensburg, Missouri.

The need to know how hunting related shootings occurred became a true passion. Slings has investigated and reviewed hundreds of hunting incidents, and has taught nearly 350 wildlife officers from the United States, Canada and Mexico at CMSU. He is the Zone III Vice President of the International Hunter Education (IHEA), and the chairman of the IHEA Incident Investigation and Research Committee.

Slings has received numerous awards including the Shikar-Safari International Wildlife Officer of the Year and various recognitions from the IHEA. Slings is a sought after presenter on the topic of hunting related incidents with the mission of prevention.

The Incident Scene Will Speak To You, You Must Listen for the Sake of Prevention – The Importance of Proper Hunting Incident Investigation

As hunting receives increased scrutiny, the safe use of firearms becomes more of an issue. Annually there are 5.4 hunting incidents per 100,000 hunters reported to the International Hunter Education Association (IHEA) in the United States. The IHEA defines a hunting incident as an occurrence or an event that results in the physical injury or death of a person or persons which involves the discharge or use of a hunting implement while engaged in hunting activity. Knowing how hunting related firearm incidents occur is vital to helping prevent them. A proper investigation consists of a fact-finding mission of collecting data, recording information, and drawing a conclusion based on facts. The concluding information detailing all incidents should be placed in reports and funneled into the hands of hunter education instructors for curriculum in hunter education programs focused on creating hunter awareness for responsible firearm safety. Additionally the information gathered can also be used to support considerations for legislative change. Because accurate investigations are critical to incident prevention, administrators of firearm safety or hunting safety programs must budget and commit appropriate resources and qualified staff to hunting incident investigation.