Guns and the impact they have on civilians are seldom far from the media spotlight, and with good reason (The Argus, April 24).

Their increased availability threatens life and liberty in communities and cities around the world, including ours. Recently an ICM poll found that 18 per cent of people surveyed in Sussex had seen a gun that they understood to be illegal.

From the inner cities of Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles to the conflicts in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, guns have never been so easy to obtain. Deadly weapons such as AK47s and assault rifles cast their shadow over people's lives all over the world on a daily basis.

But it doesn't have to be this way. We need strong, legally binding global controls to stop weapons falling into the wrong hands. It is time all governments took responsibility for individual tragedies perpetrated with the weapons they supply: the woman raped at gunpoint, the young man crushed under the tracks of a battle tank, the child forced to become a soldier.

Today, the United Nations initiative to develop a global arms trade treaty is being supported by 80 per cent of the world's governments as well as by campaign groups, including Oxfam International, Amnesty International and the International Action Network on Small Arms.

The UK Government has been at the forefront of the drive to get the treaty signed.

It is vital that it keeps up the pressure now, to make sure that sceptical countries, such as the United States, do not succeed in watering down this vital agreement.

  • Hayley Baker, Oxfam Campaigns Officer for Brighton