Saturday, 30 August 2003  
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The revolver at the retail store

With crime rising exponentially in this country, it shouldn't come as a surprise if dangerous weapons are discovered in the most unexpected places. Nevertheless, disclosures of a gun for sale in a retail outlet is more than what the average civic-minded citizen could bear. Apparently, the foreign-manufactured revolver, which one of our front page news reports said yesterday was out for sale in a retail store in Mawanella was priced at only Rs. 40.

The report went on to say that the weapon was issued to a former Minister. While investigations should continue on this incident and the whole truth fully bared, it would be advisable to treat this unexpected disclosure as the proverbial writing on the wall. There is, apparently, more than meets the eye in the country's crime scene. It was always suspected that a disconcerting number of unauthorized weapons are in circulation among particularly criminal elements, but the gun in the retail store could point to an unexpectedly high and troubling quantity of such lethal weapons far exceeding conservative estimates. It is also possible to purchase such weapons comfortably over some counters.

There are some regions of South Asia, particularly those which are withering in the deadly grip of drug traffickers, which are awash with arms. So numerous and easy to come by are murder weapons in these regions that it is said that a chicken could be bartered for an AK 47 assault rifle.

Discoveries such as those in the Mawanella retail store remind us that we in Sri Lanka cannot afford to survey these hot spots of South Asia with smug complacency or an air of superiority any longer. Criminality in this country seems to have degenerated to the same dark depths.

For just a few rupees, the criminally-inclined could arm themselves for their inhuman tasks, and such supply centres, apparently, are on the increase.

While time and again the issue of unauthorized weapons in circulation has been aired and discussed, very little has been done to round them up. We know for a fact that not all weapons which were distributed among some politicians and even decision-makers at the time of the "Reign of Terror" long ago, were re-acquired by the authorities. Deserting security forces personnel, some of whom do so with their weapons, seem to have compounded this problem.

Nevertheless, criminal elements seem to be easily accessing today even relatively sophisticated weapons, such as hand grenades, which were formerly exclusively used by security forces personnel.

The local ingenuity for the churning out of improvised weapons shouldn't also be forgotten. During the "Reign of Terror" of the late Eighties and early Nineties, for instance, the locally-manufactured "Galkatas" proved a handy weapon in the hands of anti-State elements whose political descendants are today raucously experimenting with the ways of democracy on Colombo's highways. This development should be welcomed and we hope it will remain that way.

So, the revolver at the retail store could only be the tip of the ice berg. The fact is that Sri Lanka has come a long way on the high road of criminality. There is no alternative but to act decisively and without further delay to stop the gaps which permit the proliferation of illegal weapons.

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