Small arms

Small arms are weapons that can be carried and operated by one person. The term originated in the early 21st century from the poor literal translation of the English term small arms.

These include hand weapons such as handguns (pistols/revolvers) or long weapons (rifles, carbines, assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, light machine guns), but also explosives used for military purposes such as hand grenades or mines.

Mortars, portable rocket launchers, medium and heavy machine guns are called 'light weapons'. Several people are needed to operate them. Small arms and light weapons together are referred to as SALW.

The term small arms is often used in the context of illicit proliferation and trafficking, licensed production permits, and civil and guerrilla warfare and low intensity conflicts, particularly in the developing world. The Geneva-based government project Small Arms Survey estimates that over two-thirds of all small arms are in the hands of private individuals. In turn, of the 650 million small arms in private hands, over 250 million are found in the United States of America. In addition, the vast majority of small arms are said to be handguns. The following graph provides an overview of the 10 countries with the highest density of small arms worldwide:

Non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International, Oxfam and IANSA estimate that 1,000 people die every day from gunshot wounds caused by small arms. Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, in October 2000, during his "We the Peoples" Millennium Address on the uncontrolled proliferation of small arms, remarked literally: ′The blood toll exacted by small arms dwarfs that of all other weapons systems [...]. In terms of the carnage they inflict, small arms may well be described as weapons of mass destruction′ (′The death toll from small arms dwarfs that of all other weapon systems [...]. In terms of the carnage they cause, small arms could well be described as weapons of mass destruction.′). With the Control Arms campaign, Amnesty International is campaigning for a global Arms Trade Treaty. The aim is to prevent the proliferation of military weapons, including handguns, to civilians.

Mandatory Labeling

Special legal regulations apply to small arms in Germany because of their dangerous nature and in order to improve traceability, whereby the marking regulations for export weapons differ considerably from those for weapons that remain in Germany (for police, sport shooters, etc.).

The marking obligation for small arms that remain in Germany is regulated in Section 24 of the Weapons Act.

Small arms intended for the export market must be marked in accordance with Section 13 of the Second Ordinance on the Implementation of the War Weapons Control Act.

The less stringent marking regulations for export weapons mean that small arms are smuggled into dictatorships by re-declaring the serial numbers without the deliveries being traceable. The inadequate legislation is also criticized by German customs, among others.

The UN resolution (a60-88), which calls for tighter marking of export weapons, has not been implemented in Germany since 2005.