Would you like to know more about the nine themes of the Fewer Weapons, Greater Security Plan?

The strategy is intended to reduce the number of firearms in circulation on the illegal market and, in this way, help reduce homicide and violent crime rates. Nine key action areas have been established to this end.

Safety is undoubtedly one of the main concerns of the Chilean people. This is why the Interior Ministry has launched Plan Menos Armas, Más Seguridad (Fewer Weapons, Greater Security Plan), a government strategy to decrease the circulation of firearms and thus reduce the amount of violent crime.

Interior Minister Izkia Siches explained that the rise in homicides and violent crime and the presence of armed gangs in Chile's neighborhoods are among the main concerns of the population.

Evidence from around the world has made it clear that the increase in this type of crime is associated with access to firearms. That is why this plan seeks to play a key role in controlling them.

The following are the nine key action areas in the plan:

1. The creation of an Arms Control Unit, whose goal is to coordinate the work between the National Defense Ministry (MINDEF), the General Directorate of National Mobilization (DGMN), the Interior Undersecretary's Office, the Crime Prevention Undersecretary's Office, Carabineros de Chile (Uniformed Police Service), the Policía de Investigaciones (Investigative Police Service, PDI), the Public Prosecutor's Office and the National Customs Service, to control and inspect weapons.

2. We will increase the seizure of weapons through the Carabineros and PDI police forces, reducing the number of weapons on the streets, and providing timely information to the Public Prosecutor's Office to establish where to carry out investigations.

3. We will carry out control operations on armories and individuals on a regular basis, and provide the resources for this to take place.

4. We will bring the annual firearms control plan forward. This plan will be presented in July.

5. We will modernize the control and registration system to make it more effective (DGMN - MINDEF). In May, we will sign an agreement between the Interior and Public Security Ministry and the National Defense Ministry to make the system more effective, ensuring that it incorporates a preventive and public safety approach.

6. We will update the regulations for ballistic identification systems and the registration and control of state weapons. This will be done following the required standards for ballistic identification systems, ensuring adequate interoperability between them, as established by law.

7. We will promote and strengthen campaigns to hand in weapons throughout the country.

8. We will establish territorial indicators to monitor the use of firearms, in order to guide the control of registered weapons, investigation of the illegal arms market and, ultimately, provide information for criminal investigations in this regard.

9. We will present a new arms control draft bill to change the logic of the weapons acquisition model. This bill will be presented in June 2022. Through a series of legal changes, the weapons control and registration system will be strengthened, people will be encouraged to report and hand in weapons, and access to weapons will be restricted.