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

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Figure 1: The relationship between political, legislative
and conflict-related problems
Politics
Conflict
Legislative
Le Petit Larousse illustré 3 defines a weapon as “an object, device or
instrument which, by its nature or its use, serves to attack or to defend
oneself.” The interest of this definition lies in its illustration of the general
way in which weapons are perceived. Here, semi-automatic pistols, assault
rifles and machine guns all fall into the category of firearms. It does not,
however, reveal which difference or differences exist between a firearm
and SALW.
The categories currently proposed by the UN for inclusion under the
heading of SALW are based mainly on politically-motivated arguments,
since the UN defines SALW as weapons that can be carried by an
individual, draft animal or light vehicle. This of course applies to many
weapons whose real maximum calibre is 100 mm, including handguns
(revolvers, semi-automatic pistols), shoulder-fired weapons (shotguns and
assault rifles) and mortars, to name but a few. It is therefore a very broad
classification that spans the largest weapon categories, and it reveals a need
for sub-divisions that would better allow the weapons in question to be
identified—particularly for the purposes of database use. We will go into
detail regarding the difficulties raised by this type of definition in section
2.2.
Everyone knows what a pistol or a revolver is, and what each
represents. Structurally speaking, this classification poses no problem.
However, there is such a huge difference between the Swiss-issue revolver
of 1882 and the F2000 of today (both of which fit the description of an
SALW given above) that it would be impossible to envisage using the same
mechanism for tracing these two types of weapon—particularly with
respect to searching in registers. Given that it is impossible to choose a single