Dangers of trap gun use

Vidya Abhayagunawardana

A six year old girl was killed by a trap gun in front of her father in Galgamuwa in Kurunegala district in early December, (Lankadeepa December 03, 2010). This was the latest death reported in the media related to the trap gun menace in Sri Lanka.

The incident happened when father was preparing the trap gun with his daughter looking on and it accidentally exploded. The same month a police sergeant was seriously injured with a trap gun when the teams of police officers were conducting a raid on an illicit liquor (kasippu) den in Hataraliyada in Kandy district, (Daily Mirror 20 December and The Island December 23, 2010).

Those are just few incidents, which were officially reported to the Government authorities and media, but there are many incidents related to trap guns in Sri Lanka which are not being reported due to various reasons. Like the person who prepares and puts the trap gun in place for activation, and most of the time victim of trap gun, is a family member, relative or friend. Sometime people use to hire trap gun setters for prepare and lay the trap gun in their intended land and again victims are the same.

Under these circumstances some of trap gun related incidents are not reported and many trap gun victims usually seek medical care in their own homes. Each year people get killed, permanently get disabled, injured due the trap gun and it has become an increasing threat not only for humans but also for wild animals in Sri Lanka. Victims of the trap gun include children, women, farmers, police officers, homeguards and wildlife department officials.

History and the evolution of the trap gun

Historically people used different types of traps not the trap gun to catch animals and protect their agricultural lands and crops from wild animals. Those traps were usually made out from rope or iron wires. The trap caused minimal harm for humans compared to today’s modified trap gun which can kill or disable a person on the spot.

The trap gun is not a sophisticated weapon. To prepare a trap gun is less costly and does not require sophisticated technology. It only needs a metal pipe, metal pallets and explosives which easily can be found from firecrackers, explosive remnants of war (ERW) or readily available explosive chemicals. The trap gun also has one same feature that is similar to most landmines: both are activated by the victim itself.

Victim activated devices can never be used exclusively for only the intended target. The trap gun is hardly visible to the naked eye, and its trigger line (maru wela) camouflaged in the jungle. In this background innocent humans and wild animals are facing increasing life threat from the trap gun. It is the indiscriminate nature of those devices that make victim-activated landmines and the tarp gun so dangerous and vicious.

The law

In Sri Lanka the Firearms Ordinance of No 33 of 1916, there is no specific definition for the trap gun. The Firearms Ordinance for small arms and light weapons provides the legal framework for civilian licensing, importation, sale, transfer, manufacture, repair and possession of all firearms.

The Ordinance has stipulated “gun” as: ‘Any barreled weapon of any description from which any shot, pellet or other missile can be discharged with sufficient force to penetrate not less than eight strawboards, each of three sixty fourth of an inch thickness placed one half of an inch apart, the first such strawboard being at a distance of fifty feet from the muzzle of the weapon’. Within this Ordinance comes the practical explanation of a gun, “the shooter pulls the trigger for the chosen intended target”. The trap gun does not fall into this category.

Under these circumstances prosecution for the manufacture of trap gun is minimal. Article 17th of the Firearms Ordinance states, “No person shall manufacture any gun without a licence from the licence authority”. Under this ordinance the trap gun falls into the illicit small arm category. Under these circumstances the manufacturer, possession and assembly of trap guns are illegal.

Why people use trap gun

According to the law, possess a licensed fire arm; a farmer needs to have a minimum of five acres of cultivated land. Small farmers with less than five acres or those who cultivate someone’s land are left vulnerable and not entitled to have a licensed firearm. Then they basically fall into using the illicit trap gun to protect their livelihoods. This problem is particular in some districts such as Polonaruwa, Anuradhapura, Matale, Ampara, Kurunegala, Monaragala, Badulla and Ratnapura.

Today Sri Lanka’s agriculture based rural economies relies on illicit trap gun to protect crop and livestock from wild elephants, boar, deer, porcupines and leopards also for poaching purpose. This is an unacceptable and the cruel way of protecting crops from wild animals using trap gun and poaching them. Most of the time, in the name of protecting agricultural land people use trap gun to kill wild animal for economic purposes. Such as wild animal for meat, to get animal skin and body parts such as tusks.

For some people this has become a lucrative business activity as there is a huge demand for those products in the market.

Today people also use trap guns for other purposes too. To protect illicit economic activities such as ganja and cannabis lands, moonshine production sites, gem mining, illicit logging, illegal timber industry in the jungle etc. With this background trap guns are used in all parts of the country and it will become a threat for human life and animal life in Sri Lanka.

Socio, economic and environmental cost due to trap gun

From the ancient time people had friendly relationship with the forest or the jungle for their day-to-day living activities such as to find firewood, wild herb for ayurvedic medicine, food, chena cultivation, hunting etc.

But those survival activities did not substantially harm the ecological balance or destroy the environment. Those activities were carried out without any commercial purposes compared to today’s purpose for use of the trap gun.

Sri Lanka’s total population today is a little over 20 million; out of which 17 million are rural poor with their daily life depending up on agriculture based economic activities. Most of the trap gun related incidents reported are from the rural agricultural sector in Sri Lanka. Trap guns are for crop protection and poaching. The use of the trap gun for protecting farming is not the solution, and also if there is death or injury, huge social and economic costs have to be borne by the victim’s family and society.

Trap gun victims appear to accept the injuries passively and often do not seek proper medical attention. There is no record about the incident with relevant authorities such as police and in hospitals. Sometime injuries lead to death but that does not seem to discourage them in their use of this weapon again and continued to practise it. Trap gun victims in the remote areas, increase their risk of death due to the victim having to travel long distances to get medical attention.

Many of the trap gun related cases lead to amputation. According to the Administrative Reports of the Inspector General of Police Sri Lanka, 80 deaths were recorded in related to trap gun from 2003 to 2007 period.

The Government has to spend a lot of money for trap gun related patients for long stays at hospital and for medicine. This occurs of the victim needs extra medical attention such as surgery, prosthetic and rehabilitation. According to Dr D H Widyaratne the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) Anurdhapura, “every year over 200 trap gun injured patients have been admitted to the Anuradhapura hospital. An injured person has to stay at least five to 20 days in the hospital and the cost of medical care and other hospital expenses for a patient of trap gun injuries is around Rs. 250,000 to 500,000. The Government has to bear the cost”.

He further emphasized the inhuman side of the trap gun setter. “Once the trap gun is put in the place, the setter is always alert until the trap gets gun lights as soon as the trap gun blows, trap gun setter reaches the place where the trap gun is placed, and if the victim is a human, he leaves the place immediately. Otherwise gun trapper easily can be identified.