ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the relevance of the gun issue in Latin America and examine the relationship between states and armed citizens in the region. It provides an analysis of the context of armed violence in Latin America, as well as of the incidence of civilian firearms in the remarkable increase in homicides. The chapter discusses the relationship between states and those citizens who acquire guns for defensive purposes in the governance of security. Gun control is a major topic of discussion among scholars and academics in Anglo-Saxon countries – primarily in the United States – but it is quite a different story in Latin America. The United States’ estimated gun ownership rate is 12 times higher than Latin America’s average, but its firearm homicide rate is 7 times lower. The influence of gun proliferation on violence and insecurity is namely more complex and difficult to predict than the regional literature usually suggests.
