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

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efficiency) can only take place if such cells are operational. Given the
necessity for the greatest possible speed, the best solution is to opt for a PGT
in which the marking techniques used do not require an unwieldy
infrastructure to decode and transmit the information. Because of the fact
that it is a long-term and large-scale process, it is impossible to reasonably
develop this type of cell on such a large scale.
Let us consider for a moment the fundamental objectives of a firearm
tracing mechanism. We must not lose sight of the fact that the goal of such
a process is not to wipe out crime or armed conflicts, but rather to help to
identify the criminal networks and their members through which the
weapon has circulated. This leads us to a level of analysis that is much more
interesting than the mere fact of resorting to the serial number to determine
the last legitimate owner of the weapon. Because of the fact that, in
numerous cases, this serial number can be erased by a criminal act or simply
by the more or less “aggressive” character of the weapon's environment, we
need to focus on another approach to tracing weapons and determining
their links with criminal elements or a series of crimes.
The amount of weapons currently on the market numbers about 550
million units. Some of these weapons are involved in armed conflict as well
as in everyday criminal activities. For this reason, tracing operations must
not be restricted only to weapons involved in armed conflicts as some
organizations maintain; these operations must also assist the police to
effectively fight arms trafficking and the criminal activities linked to these
weapons.
To lay the groundwork, let us take a look at the different statistics and
studies available so that we can determine which are the main weapons
involved in armed conflicts and criminal activities.
In Canada and the US, various studies and statistical reports have
shown that weapons that are the object of tracing operations are not only
weapons involved in armed conflict or those involved in crime. In some
cases, tracing requests come about as a result of simple routine checks
linked to illegal firearms possession. Furthermore, the statistics show that a
wide variety of weapons are the objects of tracing operations (see Table 1).
It is also important to recall that the weapons concerned by the two broad
fields of armed conflict and criminal activity are not always the same. This
difference is essential when it comes to choosing which weapons to trace.