NCJ Number
181461
Date Published
1999
Length
33 pages
Annotation
After analyzing the pervasiveness of illicit small arms availability as a global threat, this paper proposes ways of countering this threat.
Abstract
The analysis concludes that illicit small arms availability has become a global threat to the sovereignty of states at macro and micro-levels. This is because the massive stock of small arms accumulated during the Cold War is being circulated across national borders without effective controls. The author outlines major features of the current global context that contribute to the diverse forms of violence related to small arms. In presenting proposals to counter the easy access to illicit small arms, the paper advises that the economics of the black market for arms can be targeted from the demand side through tightening the controls of illegal economic transactions and targeted economic embargoes. Only if the current initiatives to curb the illicit trade of small arms supplement their supply-side strategies with regulatory measures barring illegal commodities from entering the regular commodity market will these initiatives achieve the desired effect. Proposals pertain to obtaining information on black markets, improving information gathering, improving the control of legal transfers, avoiding the misuse of legal small arms, an ammunition tax, instituting a recycling deposit for all firearms, dual standardization of calibers for all small arms, active market intervention in illegal trading, and reversing cultures of violence. A 65-item bibliography