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Not even the Ghana Police Service�s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has the statistics of firearms in the country. They may have figures for the legally-acquired ones or something close to that, not so however for the many owned by criminal elements in the country. These small arms, assault weapons like AK 47s, G3s, including the many locally-manufactured ones from the backyard gunsmith shops of Alavanyo and others in the Northern parts of the country, are in abundance all over the country. The reckless ownership of these unregistered weapons has never been so bad. No day passes, it would seem, without one report of a weapon being fired by hoodlums when they go robbing or laying claim to a piece of land. One morning, it was a Wednesday and residents of Accra, outside the epicenter of an indiscriminate firing incident, learnt about trouble unfolding at Avenor. Weapons were fired with reckless abandon and by the end of the skirmish, two persons lost their lives. Gone are the days when robbers sometimes embarked upon their missions without firearms. We are told that firearms could be hired for nocturnal operations from criminals who have specialized in such dastardly business. Our country has become dangerous and no matter how hard the security agencies try to restore normalcy, they do not appear to be getting close to altering the dangerous trend. When we read about the security agencies closing in on the most wanted and dangerous armed robbers and even killing them, we heave a sigh of relief. No sooner are we done with the sigh than we hear about a firefight between another group of daredevil armed robbers and the police elsewhere. Four or so armed robbers are killed, and just as we think the end had come for such happenings, news comes again about another. Even as the security agencies relish what for them is a success over the armed robbers, fresh gangs are rearing their heads. Bawku offers a typical example of how small arms have, as it were, pitched camp in this country. There is a joke that in this part of the country, what the youth think of acquiring first when they get money is weapons to protect themselves. When such a trend becomes a vogue in a given area, the tendency for small arms proliferation becomes almost a norm as being witnessed in Bawku. So many people have died painful and avoidable deaths through unregistered weapons that we think we have to take another look at tightening gun control in the country. The Police are in a better position to deal with this dangerous trend but they too cannot manage it without the public support and political interference. When the people of Akwatia went to the limited runoff a few months ago, there were so many weapons in the small town. What happened when some of these fellows were arrested? Nothing, as they were let off the hook. We appreciate the procedures involved in acquiring firearms at the CID headquarters for self-defence. We however suggest that major weapon recovery exercises be undertaken in the country�s flashpoints. These are expensive exercises, fraught with a lot of challenges, but these in our estimation can be managed if we remain resolute to achieve our objectives. We might not be able to mop off all the illegal weapons but would be close to reducing the numbers by a respectable margin and thereby making our communities safer. Considering that some of the firearms such as AK 47s and G3s are standard regulation military and police weapons, we are baffled at how they seep into the civilian communities. Our bafflement is aggravated by the existing control measures in the armories which are designed to make it impossible for soldiers, police and others who are authorized to carry weapons not to abuse the authority. There is a certain leakage somewhere which must be looked into. Besides, like we once stated, the many weapons which the so-called revolution allowed into the country are still floating dangerously around and not even the exercise undertaken in the early days of the Kufuor regime was able to rid the country completely of such small firearms. If some youth were being taken through weapon handling procedures in Bawku with G3s, the ease with which such firearms can hit the slums of Accra and Kumasi cannot be disputed.