Reporters: JEREMY JAMES
JEANNE LA CHARD , JOHN PITMAN JACK PIZZEY , DESMOND WILCOX
HAROLD WILLIAMSON
This week: Murder Weapons
In the last ten years the number of pistols and revolvers in the United States has risen from 10 million to 40 million. What was a problem of the urban ghetto areas has spread throughout the country.
Shopkeepers are arming themselves against violent robberies. Families are buying guns to protect themselves from armed burglaries. Teenagers are carrying guns as status symbols.
This report, made for NBC television, shows the frightening escalation in small arms - estimated at 21 million a year. Forty-two states require no licence. In the other states a gun can be obtained by filling in a form which is easily falsified.
Gun manufacturers have successfully opposed stricter legislation and delayed the broadcast of this film in the United States.
Next week Man Alive shows a real-life murder trial: a killing which could never have happened if guns were better controlled.
Producer LUCY JARVIS Editor ADAM CLAPHAM