Iraq's gun problem: Authorities seek to crack down on illegal firearms At least 8 million weapons of all types are believed to be in circulation in Iraq. With no real state control to oversee them, illegal firearms are responsible for hundreds of deaths each year, sometimes involving celebratory shootings at weddings or funerals that end in tragedy. To tackle the scale of this problem, the Iraqi government launched a campaign at the end of 2023 to retrieve unregistered firearms. But will it be successful? Our correspondent reports.