Small Arms and Light Weapons - Harry Frank Guggenheim ...

Following the Trail:Production, Arsenals, and Transfers of Small ArmsAnna Khakee and Herbert WulfIn 1994 reports about a transfer of surplus gunsappeared in the newspapers of Ethiopia’s capital,Addis Ababa. Truckloads of small arms and lightweapons were exported across the Ethiopian borderinto conflict-prone Somalia, with the tacitapproval of the government. The long warbetween the Ethiopian government and secessionistarmies in Eritrea and Tigray had ended. Troopswere demobilized and reintegrated into civilian lifeand military bases were closed. What to do withthe surplus weapons? Most of them had been producedin the former Soviet Union, but there werealso a few thousand US M-16 assault rifles originallyleft behind in Vietnam when US troops madetheir less-than-orderly exit; these were subsequentlyexported to Ethiopia and other countries.In the end, many of the guns that had been used togreat devastation in Ethiopia were in turn exportedto other countries. Where are the weapons thatcrossed the border from Ethiopia to Somalia in1994? Still in the hands of Somali warlords? Usedby military or militias in Sudan? Or put to use byrebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo? Wesimply don’t know. But similar stories are reportedin all war-torn societies.Following the trail of these weapons—one quitetypical for the many errant guns in Africa and elsewhere—tellsus a great deal about today’s smallarms production, transfer, and stocks. It also saysa lot about what we don’t know. Most of thesearms began as legal weapons—legal in the sensethat governments licensed their production andprocured them for their own armed forces andpolice or exported them to friendly nations. Afterthat, the picture gets blurred. Some weapons areresold to armed forces around the world; others arestolen by individuals or gangs; and some are lostfrom police or military arsenals or captured byrebels. In fact, in today’s world any person orgroup can buy whatever quantity of small armsthey desire on the international black market, providedthey have the right amount of cash or itsequivalent.On the most general level, understanding production,arsenals, and transfers of guns—the supplyside of the small arms puzzle—involves answeringa series of questions. Where are the weaponsresponsible for much of the death and destructionresulting from crime, accidental and self-inflictedinjury, internecine conflict, and organized warfare?Where do they come from? Who produced them?Today, we have only partial answers to these questions.ProductionMore than a thousand companies, usually smallor medium-sized, in more than 90 countries producesmall arms, from revolvers and pistols tomachine guns and man-portable air defense systems(MANPADS). A large number of gun producersalso manufacture ammunition and thecomponents of ammunition, such as propellants,casings, shots, and explosives. The United States isthe most important small arms producing countryin the world, with several hundred companiesinvolved in the business. It is followed by Chinaand the Russian Federation. Yet almost all otherindustrialized countries in North America andEurope (East and West) are home to medium-sizesmall-arms-producing industries. Beyond these26