Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro on Thursday proposed to expand the Colombian capital’s gun ban to a national level claiming the city’s homicide rate dropped 40% since a ban took effect a year and a half ago.

The major said that Bogota’s major drop in homicide rates should be seen as the effect of the restriction on carrying firearms on the street, in cars or in any public space.

“I propose that disarmament will be a national law. The public does not have to be armed,” Petro said at a local forum on human rights. The mayor further stressed that “weapons bring nothing but insecurity.”

According to Petro, the gun ban in Bogota has been essential for the fall in the city’s homicides.

“The policy of disarmament has been essential or how else can we explain that in just 1.5 years the homicide rate in the city has dropped from 22 to 13 per 100,000 inhabitants,” the mayor said.

Sources