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

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based our reflection on goals for the tracing process—the PT and the PGT,
each of which requires the application of more or less technical and
innovative solutions.
Better management of the registers kept by law enforcement bodies
and national and international cooperation should in turn allow the flow of
information to be better managed in order to provide a clearer picture of
the criminal element and to facilitate the exchange of information. Each
State should contribute to obtaining a certain degree of transparency
regarding weapons, at both the national (for example, Switzerland and its
federal pluralism) and the international levels.
The adoption of uniform marking should facilitate the exchange of data
and allow law enforcement agents to optimize the various tracing
operations. As for marking, other States could borrow from the Swiss
experience and the different prototypes that have been developed and
presented.
The second step consists in agreeing on the marking content and
method with a view to harmonizing the practices of the various
manufacturers. The same reasoning can be applied to the problem of
registration. Here it is important to recall the few points that require an
effort in order to form a better picture of the global tracing process:
• redefinition of weapons from a technical point of view, and adoption of
precise terminology that avoids over-generalization;
• development of a tracing system for particular weapons (tanks, missile
launchers, etc.);
• encouragement of States to cooperate with one another and with arms
manufacturers and technical experts;
• analysis of the available data in order to provide a clearer picture of the
weapons involved in armed conflict and crime;
• identification of the weapons to be traced; this operation will also
enable the perpetrators to be identified;
• use of the experiences of other countries as inspiration to develop and
make operational a global tracing process;
• a centralized organ is apparently difficult to conceive of; each State
must therefore be able to carry out trace operations at the national
level.