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

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and other identifiers and history, is collected and retained in databases. This
then needs to be retrieved in a reliable and timely fashion.
Much weapons tracing is carried out domestically, tracing sources and
lines of supply within the country concerned. But many illicit arms arrive
through transnational trafficking routes, making international tracing
cooperation essential. In the UN Programme of Action, the UN Firearms
Protocol, and numerous regional agreements, participating States have
committed themselves to cooperate in tracing illicit SALW, and to
strengthen their capacity to do so.
Weapons tracing is perhaps most regularly and intensively carried out
for purposes of law enforcement and crime prevention. Yet, tracing is also
carried out to investigate, prevent or disrupt: losses from military and other
official stocks; illicit trafficking to terrorists, rebel groups and war zones; and
attempts to break arms embargoes.
Tracing involves a number of key steps: 33
• correctly identify the weapon (or component or ammunition);
• establish the legal status of the weapon (legal, illicit?);
• determine the source and line of supply of the weapon by identifying
its manufacturer or importer and tracing its subsequent history; and
• identify the point of its diversion from the legal sphere.
In police and other investigations, the process often continues, as
follows:
• determine, where possible, the chain of possession since diversion;
• determine the possible criminal use of the weapon before or after
diversion; and
• reassess the evidential value of the weapon in a criminal investigation.
1.5.2 Systems for Weapons Tracing by Law Enforcement Agencies
Any system for weapons tracing must be based on a framework of laws,
regulations and law enforcement structures governing the manufacture,
transfer and record-keeping of arms and their parts, components and
ammunition. Such laws establish whether particular weapons can be legally
held, and the conditions for their manufacture, possession, use and sale.