Turkey’s Attempt To Curb Accidental Wedding Deaths
Britain’s Most Popular ‘Fake’ Handgun
Begum Kartal a 23 year old university undergraduate was eagerly anticipating her marriage on the 1st September when she was killed by a bullet fired by revelers at her pre-wedding party.
As a result a nationwide campaign has been launched to stop the practice of firing guns into the air at birth, engagement, and wedding celebrations. The problem is that rural people arriving in cities bring their habits and guns with them. There are three times as many guns per person in Turkey than in the USA.
Strictly it is against the law to fire guns into the air in rural areas but Turan Tuysuz, 35, an opposition lawmaker, said in a Sept. 1 phone interview. “Everyone carries a gun. At weddings you get a thousand people firing into the air. How do we stop them?
More than 500 people a year are killed in Turkey by bullets fired into the air at family celebrations.
Turkey has about 8 million firearms, or one for every 12 people, according to a July report by the Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based research group. That compares with one gun per 32 people in the UK and one for every 310 in Japan. In the U.S., the figure is two guns for every three people.
After birthdays and weddings the next most dangerous celebrations follow soccer matches when guns are fired by supporters of the winning team. When Fenerbahce won the league at least eight people were injured by stray bullets fired in Istanbul’s busy streets. It’s not advisable to go onto your balcony after an important match.
The handgun is by far the most lethal weapon to be used in Turkey according to official statistics. The head is the target favoured by criminals.
The Government is attempting to exercise better gun control by using better screening of those applying for licences, and also setting higher penalties for those who carry firearms illegally. Nevertheless the practice is widespread.
In 2001 I was having my hair cut in Bebek, and affluent suburb on the outskirts of Istanbul when a blue suited old man with black dyed hair slicked down with pomade arrived for a chat. The police had encouraged him to surrender his gun which he had carried since the War of Independence, and which he claimed had been given to him by Mustafa Kemal. It dropped out of his waistband onto the floor just as the barber was removing the hair in my ears with a piece of stout thread which he held at one end in his teeth. I was terrified that the thing would go off!
In England the two 1997 Firearms (Amendment) Acts resulted in the prohibition of the vast majority of handguns in Great Britain. As a result of the prohibition and the surrender exercise, more than 162,000 handguns were handed in to local police forces. Remarkably the statistics for 2004 show that 24,070 offences occurred in which firearms were involved, which is the highest rate ever.
The most popular ‘fake’ handgun to be used in robberies in the UK is the Walther PPK, which was popularised by Ian Fleming in the James Bond books.
Paradoxically in the USA where citizens have a right to bear arms offences involving the use of firearms is dropping. One American shopkeeper remarked, “No one would attempt to rob a store in America with a fake Walther PPK for fear of being shot by a real gun in retaliation.”
