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

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First, if a weapon has been involved in a crime, or found in the illicit or
unauthorized possession of a person or group, the relevant authorities have
every incentive to trace the weapon as part of their investigation to
prosecute those involved and (where the weapon has been illicitly supplied)
to identify, prosecute or close down the operations of those involved in
trafficking the weapon.
Second, if illicit or unauthorized weapons are seized or found, relevant
authorities may wish to trace illicit weapons in order to discover and
monitor lines of supply, and identify possible traffickers and points of
diversion from the legal sphere, and thus enable actions to disrupt future
supplies of illicit arms. Consequent action to disrupt future supply may
target arms sources and trafficking routes feeding organized criminal
groups, terrorists, rebel groups, and regions of war and instability.
Comprehensive tracing of such weapons, combined with analysis, can
enable law enforcement agencies and other relevant authorities to identify
and monitor trends and patterns of supply and use of illicit arms, and
thereby help them to focus their resources effectively to combat, prevent
and reduce such problems.
Other important applications of tracing include the following:
• identifying and preventing losses from military and other official or
authorized arms stocks;
• identifying lines of supply of arms to countries/organizations subject to
UN or other arms embargoes, in order to combat and prevent
sanctions breaking activities.
In some ways, all of these contexts are similar. They all aim to combat,
prevent and reduce illicit flows and accumulations of arms and
ammunition. Moreover, these settings all tend to have an important
regional or international dimension. Sources of illicit weapons may be in
neighbouring countries or on other continents. Lines of supply will often be
long and complex, involving a series of legal as well as “grey” or “black”
market transactions. This makes regional and international cooperation
crucial for effective tracing.
Yet, despite the similarities, there are important institutional and
political differences in these various settings. Police and associated civilian