Computer/s, photographs, student notebooks, index cards, chalk/writing board.
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One classroom period – 50 min.
Students will explore their initial assumptions on small arms. They will also be introduced to the three overarching themes of small arms disarmament.
1. For this workshop, divide the class into four groups. Each group should receive one of the following four photographs. The photos can be printed or the groups can cluster around a computer where each image can be enlarged. Once the students have a single image in front of them ask each group to quietly study the photograph, and without talking about the image, have each student open their notebooks and free-write their initial impressions about the scene depicted in the photograph. The idea here is to elicit an initial emotional response to a situation involving small arms. Students should be encouraged to write in a brainstorming mode where there are no wrong answers, only ideas to be explored. They can choose any thoughts that come to their mind including where they think the image might have been taken, what might be happening in the picture, and any thoughts concerning small arms or the impact of weapons. Allow students 10 minutes to reflect and quietly write about the image. Afterwards, ask each student to put their notebooks aside and keep their reflections to themselves for the moment. Students will share their ideas later in the lesson.
2. After the initial free-write with the photographs, give each student five index cards and allow them to write five thoughts about the "causes" of gun violence - one per card. Again, the idea here is to allow students to voice their assumptions and any initial ideas. Then ask the students to tape their cards to the front chalkboard. Once all the cards are up on the board, assign a couple of student facilitators to rearrange the cards by themes which creates clusters of shared thoughts. Discuss the themes. To conclude this activity, the educator should point out any lone ideas on the board which can also be very telling. Overall, the ideas should make an interesting introduction on the causes of gun violence and evoke the key ideas concerning strategies for disarmament.
3. At this point, the facilitator should present the three main disarmament strategies as described in the introduction:
The first strategy is to reduce the demand for guns. This is an important issue considering the culture of gun possession that exists in many places in the world, specific conflicts in the world, and the idea that people feel that guns keep them safe. The demand for weapons is also related to the humanitarian impact of gun violence. This will be the focus of this lesson.
The second major strategy is to reduce the supply of small arms. Here is where the interventions and laws come into play, the struggle for gun control laws, and strategies against contraband and illegal trafficking of weapons. This will be the focus of the second lesson.
The third major strategy is to improve stockpile controls or the guns already in circulation. These strategies include buy-back campaigns, volunteer hand-over programs, police confiscation, disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DD&R;) for ex-combatants, and weapons destruction. We might add here, complete disarmament because there are several countries where small arms are almost non-existent. This will be the focus of final lesson.
Once these strategies are described, these three ideas, the demand for guns; the supply of guns; and the issues surrounding existing guns in circulation or in stockpiles, should be written on the board in three main columns. Once these three categories are discussed, have the student facilitators rearrange the index card themes under the appropriate strategy.
Students’ ideas about what causes gun violence may or may not fit neatly under any of these concepts. For example, a clustered theme of "poverty" which could lead to someone picking up a gun, would fall under the demand for guns. It’s assumed here that most ideas would fall under the demand category. A few students may suggest that gun violence is a result of excess weapons being trafficked, and if so, this would fall under the second category and strategy, to reduce the supply of guns. Students may also suggest that existing weapons among civilians or militias during times of conflict can also lead to violence. This scenario would fall under the third strategy. Once the cards are rearranged, the educator should note the differences as a means of further explaining these three conceptual strategies for disarmament.
This cluster of activities should take no more than one class period. The educator should conclude the activities by reviewing the three strategies and by explaining that for the rest of this lesson, the class will focus on the first theme, the demand for weapons.