INTRODUCTION

Armed violence is a defining problem for contemporary Latin America and the Caribbean (Davis, 2006, p. 178). Many countries in the region suffer from rates of armed violence as high or higher than those in countries affected by war (Geneva Declaration Secretariat, 2011, pp. 51–65).

Some countries in the region not only show significantly higher homicide rates than countries elsewhere, but their security situation is also deteriorating. Homicide rates are generally increasing, and the brutality of the violence in some countries can be extraordinary. For example, in May 2011, neighbours of a remote ranch in northern Guatemala found the bodies of 27 farm workers, including two women and three teenagers. All but two had been decapitated (ICG, 2011, p. 2). While the killings were gruesome, even by the standards of the country's long history of violence, attacks of this kind are not unheard of in several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Firearms are a defining feature of armed violence in the region. Specifically, the proportions of homicides committed with firearms in the majority of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are higher than elsewhere in the world, although they vary considerably within the region. To date, firearm homicide levels and trends have not been subject to any comprehensive reviews; nor have studies been carried out on the types of firearms most commonly used in the region.