The Scope and Implications of a Tracing Mechanism for Small Arms ...

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verify that the imported weapons arrived in their jurisdiction. The South
African system coordinates import marking with record-keeping and,
therefore, takes place before final delivery to the importer.
As an outcome of negotiations on the UN Firearms Protocol, EU
member States are considering the use of national import marks, which will
be applied upon first import into the Community identifying the country
and year of first import. Intra-EU transfers thereafter will not require
additional import marks and tracing and tracking will be reliant on accurate
records being kept in the transferring States. Permanent export from the EU
and subsequent re-import will require a new import mark, whereas
temporary cross-border transfers (sport shooters, hunters, trade fairs, etc.)
will not require any additional markings. The mark will be the same size as
those used for Proof stamping. (Proof Mark approximate size .)
IMPORTING EU MEMBER STATE
YEAR OF IMPORT INTO THE EU
UK
2002
Thirteen countries 2 are members of the Commission of International
Proof (CIP). CIP Regulations require all firearms and military small arms
(manufactured or imported within a CIP jurisdiction) to be submitted for
safety testing and to be stamped with verification marks prior to use, sale or
export. CIP marks include a national stamp and year code, which can be
exploited in tracing enquiries.
Import marking is a useful means of overcoming difficulties where the
numbers, alphabet or symbols used by the manufacturer are not compatible
with record-keeping systems in the importing country, such as the examples
shown below.