Stopping the deadly flow of guns into the world's poorest and most unstable countries will take common sense solutions backed by the world's most powerful nations. With responsible policies and international cooperation, it can be done.

Stopping the Flow of Guns: the U.S. Role

As the world’s largest arms exporter, the U.S. has increased military aid to human rights
abusing nations since 9/11, often in the form of small arms and light weapons, to secure cooperation in the “War on Terror.” Unfortunately, the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” ideology has failed U.S. security interests over and over. In reality, U.S. troops have faced U.S. made weapons during the last seven armed conflicts the nation has engaged in, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia.

Controlling where weapons end up is officially called “end-use controls.” Loopholes in end-use controls and irresponsible export practices are exploited by international arms brokers to continue pumping weapons into restricted regions. The recent Hollywood film Lord of War is based on this very real scenario. The agreement forged at the UN in 2001 to stop illicit arms trafficking has helped some nations control their weapons exports. But it is riddled with loopholes and needs to be strengthened. This June, the first ever review and re-negotiation of this agreement will happen at the UN in New York City. The US must support the adoption of tighter controls on arms exports.

Draining the Pool of Weapons

In addition to stopping the flow of new weapons, the international community must also get rid of existing stockpiles. One of the most proven effective methods of getting rid of existing weapons is to destroy them. People in Mozambique are benefiting from an innovative arms destruction program founded by Anglican Bishop Dinis Sengulane. The “Transforming Arms into Tools” project has collected and destroyed over 600,000 weapons and offers useful tools in exchange for weapons. Farmers have received plows, schoolchildren have exchanged bullets for notebooks, and many people have received bicycles or building materials for turning is caches of guns and grenades. Some were turned into art like the “Tree of Life,” a life-sized tree made of guns and other weapons by Mozambican artists. Christian Aid UK, sponsor of the project, quoted Filipe Tauzene, a former child soldier: ‘The life I have now is much better as before I didn’t have the bicycle to go to town and sell things in my shop. I didn’t have iron sheets to cover my house. I have been given very useful things, which means I can get on with my life.’ 

Get Involved

Citizens and activists organizations around the world are working to stop small arms trafficking, but they need the help of governments, which are capable of destroying stockpiles of weapons, regulating the arms trade, and closing the loopholes that let gunrunners operate with impunity.  

The Peace Education Fund is working to make sure the US shows leadership to help destroy surplus small arms and light weapons, regulate military aid, cooperate with other nations to stop the use of child soldiers and enforce export controls.  We ask you to join us in these efforts by participating with us in a June month of action leading up to this summer’s UN meeting on arms trafficking. Click here to go to our Action Center.