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A report from Oxfam from early 2006 on arms controls in the context of Afghanistan, which has one of the highest concentrations of guns per person in the world. Oxfam says there may be up to 10 million small arms circulating in a country which has a population of 23 million, with the result that the culture of the gun has become deeply embedded, and the presence of firearms has a fundamental impact on democracy, development, and security. Oxfam argues that foreign governments have been instrumental in arming Afghanistan’s warring sides in the past, and that their responsibility now is to ensure that arms supplies do not fall into the wrong hands. In short, the rest of the world must take responsibility for the arms that it supplies. To do that, governments should agree a new international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).
