Highlights

Small Arms Survey Working Paper 7, by Aaron Karp

Surplus Arms in South America : A Survey, originally published in English in August 2009, has now been released in Portuguese and Spanish versions, making the valuable information more accessible to researchers, activists, the law-enforcement community, and policy-makers in the region.

The study compares military, law enforcement and civilian firearms inventories in twelve South American countries.

South America, with around four per cent of the world’s civilian firearms, suffers roughly forty per cent of the total global firearm-related homicides.

The situation is compounded by large surpluses of military small arms which are often diverted to criminals and guerrillas, fuelling insurgencies and civilian violence. The twelve independent countries of South America held an estimated 3.6 million military small arms as of 2007; and more than a third of these were surplus.

Surplus Arms in South America examines issues surrounding surplus military small arms and light weapons in the region, as well as law enforcement and civilian firearms inventories. In doing so, the study highlights the need for systematic programmes to secure and dispose of surplus military small arms to prevent their diversion into civilian and criminal inventories.

• In English
• In Portuguese
• In Spanish

See also:

• Other research dealing with South America
• Other research on stockpiles
• Other publications in Portuguese
• Other publications in Spanish

Highlights