The effects of small arms and light weapons (SALW) trafficking has come under scrutiny in the past decade due to the amount of weapons U.S. SALW manufacturers are hemorrhaging overseas primarily because traceability, culpability, and transparency of information are difficult to come by. Small arms are for personal use and include, “pistols, rifles,... assault rifles and light machine guns.” Light weapons include “heavy machine guns,... portable antiaircraft guns, portable antitank guns,... and explosive devices” (Gildea). Each year this illegal trade occurs, the United States is losing billions of dollars, moving weapons into the hands of terrorist organizations or gangs, and these weapons are often used against our military personnel. This paper will discuss the process of acquiring export licenses, quantify the scope of SALW has on the U.S., identify key agencies, and provide suggestions on how to address this dangerous and costly problem.
Collection of serial numbers at the time of export is not mandated, and if they are collected (such as with the ATF Form-9), they may be withheld from criminal justice agencies since this data is seen as tax related. To have items exported, a SALW manufacturer must obtain a license from the Department of State for each shipment (Gildea). The Department of State issues licenses and collects waybills (itemized shipping receipts) but only requests sender/recipient information, manufacturer, quantity of the SALW model number(s), but nowhere on the form does it ask for serial numbers. By not acquiring serial numbers of SALW exports, this practice has proven quite problematic in terms of prosecution and lost lives. Additionally, without serial numbers, manufacturers, weapon type, and correlating t...
... middle of paper ...
...ur economy and kill innocent soldiers.
Works Cited
Cragin, Kim. Arms Trafficking and Columbia. Santa Monica, CA: Prepared for the Defense Intelligence Agency [by] RAND National Defense Research Institute, 2003.
Gildea, Timothy, and Glenn Pierce. “Small Arms and Light Weapons Trafficking: Creating an Assessment Framework from the U.S. Experience.” Nonproliferation Review. 14.1 (2007): 1-31.
Jojarth, Christine. Crime War, and Global Trafficking: Designing International Cooperation. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009.
"President Obama: We failed to connect the dots - BostonHerald.com." Home - BostonHerald.com. Web. 08 Feb. 2010.
United States. Government Account Ability Office. Challenges Exist in Enforcement of an Inherently Complex System. 2006.
Moore, Matthew, “Arming the embargoed: a supply-side understanding of arms embargo violations”, Journal of Conflict Resolution (2010) 54 pp. 593-615
As the government became more involved with tracking these guns they began to run into trouble with people not registering their weapons that fit the guidelines of a firearm that needed to be registered. So the NFA realized that changes needed to be made and it stated that gun owners who already owned the weapon did not have to have it registered. Its main objective was to prohibit interstate traffic in firearms and ammunition, it also denied guns to specific classes of individuals such as felons, minors, fugitives, drug addicts and the mentally ill. Despite all these provisions the law was not one hundred percent effective when came down to the specifics, as criminals were still able to find a way to retrieve firearms. This leading to
Even though the NICS is more updated, the trafficking of guns cannot be stopped. Only people who admit they are in the business of selling guns are required to have a license, keep...
Over the last decade or so, the United States of America has been shaken by an epidemic of terrifying mass shootings, devastating slayings of unexpecting victims, and unnerving annihilations of the innocent. There is no specific target, no explicitly sought-out group, nor definite individual. From a classroom of first-graders, to a crowded movie theatre, to a U.S. Naval yard, the location seems at most, random, other than that it is almost always a public place. The perpetrators responsible for these horrific murders also vary, and often surprise those who thought they knew them. However, while the occurrences of mass shootings are unpredictable and always shocking, most have one thing in common: the use, or rather misuse, of assault weapons-automatic or semiautomatic military style rifles. To ensure the safety, security, and well-being of the people of the United States, the government should ban assault weapons.
Ring, Ray. “Guns R Us.” High Country News (Paonia, Co) Vol. 39, No. 14 Aug. 6 2007:10-17. Sirs Issues Researcher. Web. 6 Oct. 2015.
“The UK went through a steep learning curve regarding gun violence in the period after 1996, especially the police,” says Professor Peter Squires, a criminologist at the University of Brighton and author of Gun Culture or Gun Control?, which examines British and US responses to mass shootings. “I have no doubt they began to better understand the working of the criminal gun market, and better control both supply (trafficking) and demand (mainly gangs) within it.”
...legal weapons in the hands of bad people. The United States should cease it obsession with weapons and at least attempt to hinder this development with any means necessary. This nation must limit the amounts of weapons in the hands of criminals and those that would use them incorrectly.
The possible cross-border benefits rising from U.S. gun control policy also smear more normally, beyond Mexico. The mixture of its size and the circumstance that it has one of most tolerant regulatory regimes in the world suggests that U.S. gun laws can have large local or even worldwide consequences. For example, most guns used in criminal acts detained in Jamaica over this past ten years have also been drew back to the U.S., specifically to the state of Florida.
Drug trafficking has been a massive concern between the borders of Mexico and the U.S. “since mid 1970s” (Wyler, 1). Drug trafficking is “knowingly being in possession, manufacturing, selling, purchasing, or delivering an illegal, controlled substance” (LaMance, 1). A dynamic relationship exists amongst Columbia, Mexico, and the U.S. the informal drug trafficking economy. This growing informal drug economy leads to many individuals creating a substantial living through this undercover market. These individual drug cartels monopolizing the trafficking market are a growing problem for the U.S economy and need to be located and controlled. If this trafficking continues, the U.S. informal economy will crush the growth of legal industries. The trafficking and abuse of drugs in the U.S. affects nearly all aspects of consumer life. Drug trafficking remains a growing issue and concern to the U.S. government. The U.S. border control must find a way to work with Mexico to overpower the individuals who contribute to the drug trafficking business. This market must be seized and these individuals must be stopped.
Access to guns in the United States (US) is too easy and the laws governing access should be strengthened. Current US gun laws are very permissive, which has led to excessive gun-related violence and deaths. Guns are one of the leading causes of violence in the US at the moment, and access to guns (legally and illegally) is very easy. Currently, there are ~211 million firearms in circulation and 70 million are handguns. (1) Today, there is at least one gun in fifty-percent of households in the United States. In 24 states, any person who is 18 years of age or older can go into a gun store, fill out a form, wait a couple of weeks and then go home with a gun. In 33 states, gun owners are not restricted from selling guns to anyone at gun shows. At gun shows the gun buyer is not required to submit a federal background check and gun show dealers are not required to be licensed to sell guns at shows. Critics call this the “gun show loophole” allowing gun owners to buy and sell guns as if they were selling from their home without the need for more strict background checks and waiting periods before acquiring the gun. Supporters of buying guns without background checks do not believe this is a “loophole” because they believe guns will just be obtained illegally anyway.(2)
"U.S. Gun Policy: Global Comparison." Council on Foreign Relations. N.p., 12 Jan. 2016. Web. 6 May 2016.
The next question is : What weapons control , smugly will be citizens ? . We call " law abiding ."
Many Americans are now applying for a license to carry licensed concealed arms with them. The rate at which licenses are being approved is worrying. This development is concerning law enforcement authorities. Putting so many firearms at the disposal of the public is counterproductive to the gains that are being made on improving security and especially in the cities where incidences of gun crime and violence are on the rise.
In 1994, Congress passed the Federal Assault Weapons Ban which eliminated the manufacturing of certain assault rifles for private use (Plumer). This bill expired in 2004, though, and was never redrafted. Many mass shootings in the last few years, especially ones at Virginia Tech, a movie theater in Colorado, and Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut have stirred up pressure to pass a new bill. Following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut last December, California Senator, Dianne Feinstein, drafted a bill to potentially ban the sale, transfer, manufacturing, and importation of assault rifles. This bill includes a ban on semiautomatic rifles, pistols, shotguns, and handguns. Additionally, it bans 157 other specifically-named firearms and certain ammunition feeding devices (Feinstein). Excluded from this ban are registered weapons at the date of the bill’s enactment and assault weapons used by military, law enforc...
Alpers, Philip and Marcus Wilson. 2013. Guns in the United States: Facts, Figures and Firearm Law. Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney. GunPolicy.org, 14 March.10 April 2013.http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states