[url=http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020624/ap_wo_en_po/un_small_arms_1]Associated Press[/url]

[b]U.N.-backed study estimates 639 million small arms in world[/b]

ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS; AP Writer

GENEVA — An estimated 639 million small arms are held by individuals, police, military and guerrillas around the world, a U.N.-supported study said Monday.

The revised estimate in the second annual Small Arms Survey exceeded the 550 million estimated in the first edition published last year.

Peter Batchelor, one of the authors of the 329-page survey, said the revision didn't necessarily mean the number of arms had grown but was "based on better data and we think improved estimation techniques and particularly some much better data we received from Asia last year." The weapons included as small arms ranged from pistols and rifles to mortars under 90mm and shoulder-fired rocket launchers.

"For guerrillas, less concerned with tactical accuracy than political impact, the mortar is an ideal light weapon," the study said. "The mortar is an easy weapon to improvise from scrap."

The study said the bulk of small arms - 59.2 percent - are privately owned. Government armed forces own the second largest amount - 37.8 percent. Police have 2.8 percent and insurgents 0.2 percent.

China proved to be one of the most difficult countries to obtain information about the number of small arms, but the survey concluded that "the actual total probably is much greater than commonly assumed."

"Many Chinese people, such as those from major cities and coastal regions, are under the impression that guns are scarce in their society, strictly licensed and confined to the criminal underworld and the remote regions."

Recent indications from Chinese police of seizures of weapons, however, suggest that "firearms are rapidly becoming more plentiful."

The total numbers of small arms in civilian hands in China "must reach into the tens of millions," it said.

"It probably is surpassed only by the United States with some 240 million civilian firearms, and possibly India, home to some 40 million."

The survey, a project of Geneva's Graduate Institute of International Studies, is supported by the Swiss and other governments as well as the U.N. and other international organizations. It is published by the Oxford University Press.

damn.  And I only own 9 of them.  

Key Findings of the report:

•More than 1,000 companies in at least 98 countries worldwide are involved in some aspect of the production of small arms and/or ammunition.

• The global small arms market is dominated by only 13 countries.

• There are at least 639 million firearms in the world today, of which 59% are legally held by civilians.

• Civilians purchase more than 80% of all the fire-arms that are currently manufactured worldwide each year.

• The largest small arms exporters, by value, are the US and the Russian Federation.

• Small arms availability and use can contribute to a range of humanitarian effects, including forced displacement, and declining access to basic needs.

• Small arms can contribute to an increase in the scale and pace of killing.

• False end-use documentation is often used to evade UN arms embargoes, and divert arms to the illicit market.

• More than four million small arms have been eliminated from the global stockpile in the last decade as a result of various weapons collection and destruction programmes.

(Source: [url=http://www.smallarmssurvey.org]www.smallarmssurvey.org[/url])

Hell, I'm only at 14. Got some catchin' up to do. [pistol] [sniper] [shotgun]

ONLY 639 MILLION!!!? He'll i would have thought it to be higher then that. The major Firearm manufacturers need to step up production. A gun for every home!


The destruction of four million firearms is abuse and should not be tolerated. I'd be more then happy to give them a proper home. Lets form a new organization: Patriots for the Safe  Ownership of Firearms or PSOF for short. Affectionately known as PissOff by its new found members.

Firearms in the hands of the oppressed lead to forced placement and acquiring basic needs.[:)]



Lib-Who does'nt shoot from the hip, only the lip

Looks like we're ahead!

Small arms availability and use can contribute to honest citizens kicking socialist dictators out of office. But the UN wouldn't know anything about socialist dictators, now would it?

of criminals and tyrants

People getting around UN gun bans? Can't have that!

Is there any way I could get a few of those?

Make that 639,000,000 and one. I put another AR together this morning and I doubt it got added to their tally. [:)]

So many small arms............. So little money!

Looking for #41

Only 639 million small arms for 4 billion people???
No wonder tyranny, poverty, and genocide are so commonplace.

That's what I was thinking! For 4 billion people, the count should be more like 10 billion, at least!  Interesting to see that civilians hold more small arms than armies.

What impresses me is that 250 of those 693 million guns are in the hands of American citizens — over 37 percent  of the world's [i]entire known supply of small arms[/i]. We are indeed the "world's arsenal of democracy".

That's also why gun control in America is so important for the anti-gun cause. Passing just one new anti-gun law at the federal level can effect a huge change in the total number of civillian-owned guns throughout the world. Ban and confiscate all guns in America, and you've reduced the number of civillian guns in the entire world by almost 60 percent.

I wonder how many loaded rounds of ammo there are then? Maybe 10 billion?

owning arms isn't the big issue, make sure to stockpile ammo now, though, for the various ammo bans that they WILL use to limit our activites.  Just wait...

If I stockpile any more I'll have to rent a bloody storage shed.

I'll second that!  

The US, with 5% of the world's population, has about 1/3 of the worlds wealth and 1/3 of the world's guns.

Is there a correlation there?

I don't have any guns...[rolleyes] I just like the stories and pictures of people who do own guns......[:D]

I saw a kid last week in south downtown Dallas (I think the local gentlemen of color call it the hood)with a zip gun. Does that count?[@:D]

Wonder if they counted this weeks production ??

Why don't we have a gun buy back buy back program where we get a few FFLs and set up shop by the buy back booths?  Offer the same money.  I'd walk up and down the line and find some i'd like, especially at that price!

Keving67