Firearms are the murder weapons of choice in Malta, with 40 per cent of homicides over the past two decades involving guns, according to recent statistics tabled in Parliament.

This is four times the rate of gun killings in the UK.

In response to a parliamentary question by Labour MP Etienne Grech, Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela presented figures encompassing all wilful homicides between 1996 and 2015, split according to the victim’s gender and cause of death.

Gunshot wounds were the established cause of death in 46 of the cases

While 67 victims were men, 39 were women and gunshot wounds were the established cause of death in 46 of the cases. This was followed by stabbing, the cause of death in 28 cases, with the overwhelming majority of victims being female.

Other, less common, causes of death included asphyxia, explosions, blunt objects, blows, being pushed from a height, overdose, being run over and cranial nailing.

The Sunday Times of Malta asked three experts to interpret the figures.

Eddie Attard, crime historian

In Malta, guns are licensed to be kept at home not to be carried. Only members of the police force and some others, such as hunters, are authorised to carry weapons.

Lately, we’ve been having homicides carried out by semi-automatic weapons – this proves that, for certain people, it is not that difficult to obtain these weapons illegally.

Last March, Raymond Caruana was gunned down in San Blas by a Kalashnikov AK-47, which was left behind in a torched car. While in 2014, Tyson Butcher owner Jonathan Pace was shot at with a rapid fire assault rifle while Joseph Galea, known as il-Ġilda, was also killed by a similar weapon.

In Malta, unlicensed handguns and rifles (not shotguns) are used in homicides involving firearms.

During police investigations, it is of utmost importance to establish the type of weapon used. This can be done from the type of cartridge cases, if available, or from the bullet. Guns demonstrate a greater degree of planning than stabbing. During the past years, we have had a series of planned homicides when the trigger was pulled with the irrevocable intention to kill. In stabbing cases, on the other hand, the victim might survive or might die after identifying the assailant.

Stabbing cases are generally more gruesome, especially if the victim is a woman. More blood is left at the crime scene. We’ve had a number of cases that prove this. Nowadays, jurors assessing a trial can view the video footage or images of the crime scene and these favour the prosecution’s case.

So-called ‘crimes of passion’ may be attributable to a sudden rush of blood to the head, with no deliberate intention of killing. There are other types of crime of passion, such as killing for love or lust. The latter may evoke a degree of sympathy in the mind of the observer or a juror.

Kevin Sammut Henwood, forensic psychologist

The process of obtaining a licence to collect weapons – even those of a certain calibre – does not seem to be too daunting. This may facilitate their availability. However, most murder weapons are presumably unlicensed or obtained from the black market. History has demonstrated that, as Maltese, we have always been at the forefront of smuggling.

In criminal investigations, weapons and the method of killing used would usually denote the time and degree of planning involved in the murder. It might also shed some light on the perpetrator himself and yield information about his past, his profession or his motive.

I firmly believe no violence is random or blind, in that every violent act has some degree of planning or foresight. The choice of weapon used is determined by circumstances and opportunity – for instance, being in the kitchen might facilitate the use of knife since it is readily available.

Generally when people contemplate such acts, they would typically use mental representations that are familiar. So, for instance, if I come from a family or live in a community where guns are commonplace, then the chances are that if it comes to killing or harming someone, I would use a firearm.

Guns also tend to be more efficient and can kill from a distance so if I am motivated to kill and escape quickly, using a firearm might facilitate this.

‘Crimes of passion’ do not exist in all legal systems. The English legal system, for instance, has no definition of a crime of passion so this cannot be used as an excuse by the defence. Here, it is assumed that as an adult with no intellectual disability, the perpetrator should have been in control of his actions.

However, in Malta, like in Italy and France, crimes of passion might be used to reduce the culpability of the perpetrator – the act or murder occurred, but the person was acting out of character or blinded by strong emotions and was therefore not fully capable of restraining himself.

It follows that most crimes of passion are related to domestic or intimate partner violence, which invariably occur in domestic settings, where the chances are that knives of various sizes are more available than firearms in Malta (in South Africa this might be different, such as in the case of Oscar Pistorius).

Some theorists argue knives are more personal and that the perpetrator has to be closer to the victim to kill. So if the motivation is to cause fear, pain and exert control prior to killing, then possibly knives are better suited.

Roberta Holland, forensic psychologist

Murder is a crime with a very high clearance rate on the part of the police, with the majority of cases having a history (in that they do not occur without motive or out of the blue). The majority of homicides occur between acquaintances.

The weapon and method provide a lot of information for investigating officers and may help reveal or confirm the identity of the murderer, pre-planning, intent, nature of the relationship between the murderer and victim or motives for the murder.

A gun might indicate a more specific intent to kill as well as more forethought, especially in acquiring the weapon, planning the attack and using it.

However, this does not necessarily mean other methods are not well planned or deadly.

I think the term “crime of passion” is rather misleading as it tends to imply that the murderer had no control over his emotions or behaviour and tends to excuse or justify the killer’s behaviour. Within the domestic context, it is very often even justified as a reaction to provocation.

We tend to associate stabbing with ‘passion’ because it is widely used in domestic conflicts involving infidelity and resulting emotions, or in cases where a fight breaks unexpectedly (excluding cases of self-defence).

But we have to keep in mind there are generally no guns available in such situations. Using a gun can be as ‘passionate’ and as gruesome as stabbing. While one would expect more pre-planning in gun murders, there is still the intent, a plan to kill, and the ability to reason in murders by stabbing.