HiddenHighway





Imagine this, a Hidden Highway, a never ending invisible course, connecting its travelers to the ends of the world without ever being found; leaving the travelers to accomplish sinful deeds; a simple path to pain, sorrow, and death. This is a metaphor that defines arms trafficking. ** Arms trafficking ** is a transnational crime brought into play in the 21st century, and represents the contraband of weapons. While everyone is living their life, someone is shot everyday, every minute, every second. Police authorities nod their heads down in pity of a shoot out near a school. Relatives, cousins, and family members look over to their loved ones laid in a coffin surrounded by flowers with a single hole pierced through their loved one’s heart. These distressed situations are caused by a single gun, followed by a single finger on a single trigger. That finger was moved by a single command and that command was delivered because of multiple causes.


 * The cause ** in handling of guns makes peacemakers and leaders think of the possibilities first hand. Maybe the first concept that popped in their minds is that [[image:police.gif width="283" height="431" align="right" caption="("Crime")"]]judges had been too lenient, or the necessity of tougher sentences and more police is made necessary by the lack of attendance. (“Time”) An additional idea that passed through peacemaker’s and leaders’ heads is just based on the country’s laws and way of life as a society. A quote from the article, //Culture Soaked in Blood,// fully supports the idea; “This is an insanely violent society, and the worst of that violence is made insanely easy by the widespread availability of guns.” More chilling is this; “We’re confiscating shampoo from carry- on luggage at airports while at the same time handing out high-powered weaponry to criminals and psychotics at gun shows.” (Herbert)

Another thought bubble that appeared and pushed away is cultural factor. Small-minded conservatives and liberal-minded people would have rejected such an idea but, the influence of the growing power and reach of global culture led to the acceptance of the idea with the leading hand of technology of Internet and advancements of communication. (“Time”) For example in Toronto, Canada teenagers with the appearance of puffy down jackets, baseball caps or turques, baggy pants, and expensive running shoes group around on a random street with their tunes blasting out in volume glorifying violence and degrade women. Random walkers passing by would not give a second thought of the group of teens having guns based on the teens’ appearance and music. A coincidence that the article, "Time to talk about Violence and Culture," states that Toronto’s youth and U.S. youth listen to the same artists in music, dress the same, have the same sociopathic behavior, and use the same vernacular.

Finally, a concept that I will state is the “backlash effect”. This backlash effect involves spending millions of cash on a gun law, but does not even help restricting gun distribution. This means that there is no money left to give to police stations and hospitals, and the result is the increased rate of killings of homicide and death beds. For instance an essay written by Gary Mauser in 2006 stated out that, “gun laws impose very high costs on citizens, both through compensation for confiscating outlawed weapons and by stimulation the growth of government bureaucracy.” Mauser stated that Canada’s gun registry was supposed to be $2 -million when the registry was introduced, but as payments were flowing in the price drastically increased to $2 **billion**. In addition, this high-priced registry has not saved any lives with the percentage of Canada’s gun homicides fixed at 27 percent and family homicides with firearms at 23 percent. Canada is not only the victim here. Mauser also affirms that, “Both the United Kingdom and Australia brought it stringent firearms laws following garish media coverage of shootings in the 1990s.” The police statistics say the U.K. is continuing to suffer with massive crime and homicide rates increasing by years. Australia taxpayers have bills up to the equivalent to $420 million for laws of destroying the confiscation of firearms in Australia. To fix these backlash-hurting laws Mauser’s suggests, “It is an illusion that further tinkering with our gun laws will protect the public, and it’s about time we realized this and spent our resources more wisely.” In resources Mauser means that people should their money in police policy changes or hospitals to heal the wounded victims by arms trafficking.

Now let’s all soak up the causes of these acts of “gunrunning” and conjure acts that would trim down the numbers of deaths of homicides. Arms trafficking is a Hidden Highway with pointless killings behind our backs every single day and will not change if leaders do not act. Sorrow, pain, and death always come with that single gun and that single finger on a single trigger. A solution to a problem is not killing arms trafficking but to understand the people with the gun and support them to destroy the sinful acts and the spark that ignites the act. Government should not stop arms trafficking by setting down laws, but use the energy and money for police and hospitals in curing and stopping arms trafficking. We as human beings have the tools to end the causes of arms trafficking and fix the mistake of the origin of arms trafficking. The Hidden Highway of arms trafficking encompasses and connects many things and factors in this country and others. The only way to truly stem and eventually halt the flow of the illicit sale of firearms and other munitions is to get rid of the need for the guns. Like any industry, arms’ trafficking thrives solely because of a demand. However, unlike the real estate or the fast food industry, this industry has a demand for guns and other armaments. Whether these guns are used in street crime in Mexico (Castillo), or in gang shootings in our own country (Heinzmann), or even used in a thankfully botched but no less dangerous terrorist arms deal (Drogin), all examples of arms trafficking have one underlying similarity, the fact they are anchored in other illegal enterprises.

Mexico and the U.S. aren’t the only countries in North America affected by the illicit selling of smuggled firearms; over the past 5 years authorities have discovered more than 5,400 firearms going into Canada from the United States, the majority of which were pistols and other small firearms (Gillis). According to the authorities "the pistols are the modus operandi of the street gangs" (Gillis). One police officer said "people would rather be caught with a gun by police than be caught without one by a rival." (Gillis) In 2004 a man named John Butcher was arrested for smuggling “ 23 high-powered handguns, including a TEC-9 semi-automatic, a weapon notorious within the law enforcement community for its tendency to spray bullets like water from a garden hose."  (Gillis)  Butcher, however, claimed he had no idea he was smuggling the guns and indeed he didn’t. It was discovered that he was just paid to cross the border where others would then plant the guns in his car and he was to go back across the border. Butcher was sentenced to 2½ years in prison. He was finally caught on his third trip and assuming that that was the typical load; imagine how many guns he inadvertently smuggled into Canada. Also imagine this, the Hidden Highway managed to smuggle this many guns from an unwilling and unaware person, imagine how many have been smuggled on purpose.

Arms’ trafficking occurs because of fact that guns are needed to fuel other crimes. When asked why there were so many murders, Police Superintendent of Chicago Philip J. Cline replied “It’s simple: gangs, guns, and drugs." (Heinzmann) Other transnational crimes such as terrorism, piracy, or even human trafficking involve guns in some way shape or form and how do you think they obtained these guns? In 2008 Somali pirates hijacked the Ukrainian cargo freighter, the Faina. This ship contained “33 battle tanks and assorted heavy weaponry." (Burnette) This event is frightening on two levels one being the fact that it is another example of how arms trafficking influences other crime. The pirates almost certaintly used illegally obtained firearms to hijack the cargo ship. The other and infinitely more chilling aspect of this crime is what plans did these pirates have with these newly acquired munitions? The possibilities are endless; they could be used by the pirates, or sold on the black market to any number of criminal or terrorist organizations. The Hidden Highway spreads far into this world.

Africa is a continent possessing great natural beauty and even greater natural resources. These resources include jewels, fertile lands, and precious metals. Unfortunately, this great beauty has drawn in many criminal and other illegal enterprises scrambling to possess these natural resources for profit, and where there is crime there is also inevitably arms trafficking. Due to the large amount of crime and illegal organizations in Africa, there are networks of smuggling and arms trafficking (Ainger) in fact the Hidden Highway is so expansive the New Internationalist said,


 * Arms** **trafficking** is a crucial link in the chain. According to one source, perhaps only 120 people are responsible for most of the small **arms** going to Africa, including those who armed the genocidal Rwandan militias. Resource commodities often get sold or swapped for illegal **arms** shipments coming in the opposite direction. (Ainger)

In Africa, these armaments are used in the diamond trade, slavery, and human trafficking; (Ainger) once again proving that arms trafficking is not a crime by itself but always works in junction with others. In Mozambique, diamonds are being smuggled in from Zimbabwe at an astonishing rate (Childress). This crime, perpetuated by traders and merchants, often involve armed guards, since diamond smuggling is illegal, the guns these guards use are also illegally obtained.

Arms trafficking is a very serious issue, shadowed only by the fact that that industry thrives on other heinous crimes and shadowy organizations. This Hidden Highway is truly a web of death, deceit, and destruction, in all nations.

"**Arms ** dealers provide the grease that makes foreign policy work. If you're going to have a covert war somewhere, somebody has to provide the bullets." --John Miley, former weapons dealer for the CIA (Silverstein)



The world is being flooded by small arms, many of them left over from past wars. As wars end, the deadly work of guns is not going away, killing more people than all the tanks, missiles, bombs, and fighter planes on Earth. These easy-to-buy, easy-to-hide weapons are multiplying in civilian societies. (Renner) Guns are epidemic worldwide and effort needs to be put in, and ideas need to be plans set in place to stop this epidemic.

The escalation of violence today has been made possible by the massive availability of deadly weapons dispersed during the past political turmoil, In a population of 45 million, there may be as many as 17 million firearms of military and civilian caliber: government security forces have access to about 5 million firearms, private citizens legally hold another 4 million, and illegal ownership is estimated to be between 5 and 8 million.(Renner) In the U.S, more people are killed with guns in a typical week than in all of Western Europe in a whole year, and more in a single day than in a entire year in Japan (Renner), but in the week of May 2, 2009, the United States made and example of an Arizona gun-shop owner who went on trial that week. The case was to be an example of what happens to gun dealers who sell weapons that end up into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, fueling the horrific violence south of the border that killed more than 6,000 people in the last year. (Millman) Arms trafficking may not seem like a serious crime, but think again. Arms’ trafficking is a serious crime that needs to be stopped. If not it could lead to other crimes like other types of trafficking and illegal crimes. In El Salvador unemployed youth have formed heavily armed gangs that commit violent crimes with weapons left over from the country’s civil war. (Millman)

This epidemic is spreading like wildfire and the knowledge needed to douse the flames was not shared until late 2001. In July of 2001, the U.N had a conference about small arms trafficking, and stated some situations and was steering toward planning and action, but that was not achieved.

Some solutions to this plague is to put in place strict laws with severe punishment for illegal possessions of firearms and inform the public about such activities in there communities. If measures are not set in place to regulate this situation we will have this situation escalate to the point where we have epic chaos like the situation in the sweeping the country of Mexico and the whole continent of Africa. (Unknown) (Farley) (Millman) **“The market price for the guns was greater than the price for the children themselves. In 1986, an AK-47 cost ten cows, or about $1,000. By 2001, a glut of guns (and dearth of cows) shrank the cost to two cows, or about $86 along the Sudan-Uganda border. The child market was more volatile. In early 1987, after al-Mahdi began his counterinsurgency, a Dinka boy cost $90. By 1990, as supply swelled, the price fell to $15. At the time of my visit, CSI had agreed to pay $33 per slave.” (E. Benjamin)**

Arms Trafficking is again, a serious matter that needs be addressed and stopped before the situation is a point of no return.

Informative Video

media type="youtube" key="hDmsiDBfmfo" height="220" width="248"

> United States of America < This is just a general statistics of the United States I found on a external website that shocked me. I live in Virginia and I was surprised that Virginia was on the top four in the most supplier of guns in crime for America. I found this information on the Havoscope black markets website that posts of recent information like today of market transactions on the international black market. The sites shows a variety of items from alcohol, drugs, guns, to people. Anyway, you the reader should go on this site and just browse it for fun.


 * >[|CLICK ON THIS!]< **

>The World in General< __Be a Global Citizen__ and click on the country with the link to a pack of information of that country's black market statistics plus with recent black market gossip about it. Also, in the order from top to bottom - left to right are the order of the countries from highest and lowest in black market spending, which are mainly **guns**. The total spending of all of these 75 countries are about $1.166 Trillion on the black market alone. [|United States]

[|Italy] 

[|Mexico] [|China] [|Japan] [|Canada] [|United Kingdom] [|Germany] [|Spain] [|Russia] [|South Korea] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: left;">[|Peru] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|Brazil] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: left;"> [|Indonesia] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|India] <span style="color: #022c56; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-decoration: none;">[|Venezuela] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|Morocco] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: left;">[|France]

[|Guatemala] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: left;">[|Iran] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|Thailand] <span style="color: #022c56; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-decoration: none;">[|Switzerland] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|Australia] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: left;">[|Pakistan] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 126%; text-align: right;">[|Afghanistan] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;"> <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: left;">[|Iraq] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|Turkey] <span style="color: #022c56; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-decoration: none;">[|Ukraine] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|Israel] [|Saudi Arabia] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|Bulgaria] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: left;">[|Philippines] <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|Taiwan] <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: right;"> <span style="color: #022c56; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-decoration: none;">[|Ireland] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|North Korea] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: left;">[|Nigeria] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|South Africa] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: left;">[|Colombia] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|United Arab Emirates] <span style="color: #022c56; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-decoration: none;">[|Poland] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|Kuwait] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: left;">[|Malaysia] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|Kenya] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: left;">[|Argentina] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|Vietnam] <span style="color: #022c56; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-decoration: none;">[|Cambodia] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|Netherlands] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: left;">[|Sweden] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|Burma-Myanmar] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: left;">[|Greece] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right; text-decoration: none;">[|Hungary] <span style="color: #022c56; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-decoration: none;">[|Bangladesh] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|Romania] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: left;">[|Bolivia] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: right;">[|Moldova] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: left;">[|Chile] <span style="color: #022c56; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16.38pt; text-align: right;">[|Norway] ***All Flags ("CIA")**

>Graphs and Pictures!< <span style="color: #5e8a47; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 190%;">





Here are some really interesting facts, quotes, and information that I found in an awesome website called **Fast Facts** for arms trafficking. [|>Fast Facts Website!<]

//Did You Know?//

**//The International Red Cross has estimated that one out of every two casualties of war is a civilian caught in the crossfire. [|NISAT]//** // Half of the world's governments spend more on defense than health care. [|Arias Foundation] // //The U.S. share of total world military expenditures per year has been roughly 36%, while comprising under [|5%] of the world's population.// // The U.S. Arms Industry is the second most heavily [|subsidized] industry after agriculture. // // 2 // 001 world military expenditures topped $839 billion, while at the same time an estimated 1.3 billion people survive on less than the equivalent of U.S. $1 a day. [|Arias Foundation] If you were to count by one number every second, without stopping, it would take you 11-and-a-half days to reach one million, and 32 years to reach one billion. (as reported by Earth Action) Iceland has no military and no military expenditure. **//The early 90's saw a//** post-cold war decline in world arms production. This decline has slowed considerably in the latter half of the 1990's, and military expenditure in Africa has been on the increase since 1997. [|SIPRI] **The United Nations estimates there to be over 300,000 child soldiers around the world, now serving as combatants in over 30 current conflicts.** [|The Center for International Policy] estimates that around 80% of U.S. arms exports to the developing world go to non-democratic regimes. //** The U.S. government is training soldiers in upwards of 70 countries at any given time. **// **//In the United States 32,000 people are killed per year by small arms, 13,000 of which are murders. [|SAWG]//**
 * // 1% of the U.S. budget is slated for International Affairs. Only 0.6% of that 1%, or $127 million, is allocated for U.S. peace-keeping operations. //**
 * // [|State Department budget] //**
 * // There are more [|landmines] planted in Cambodia than people. Cambodia is just one of 64 countries around the world littered with some 100 million anti-personnel landmines. //**
 * // Intended primarily to maim, landmines can lie in wait years after a conflict ends, causing 500 deaths and injuries per week. [|more on landmines] //**

<span style="color: #8ca6e8; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 150%; text-align: center;">False Facts / Point-Counter point

** The United States Defense Industry is losing its share of the world market to increasingly aggressive foreign competitors. [|Counter-Point:] The U.S. share in world arms exports rose from 35% in 1990 to 50.4% in 2000 **

If we supply the arms, we can control the use of the weapons. __Counter-Point__ __:__ When anti-independence militias organized and assisted by the Indonesian armed forces went on a violent killing spree in East Timor in September 1999, they were equipped with U.S. -origin M-16 rifles and other U.S. -origin equipment. The missiles attached to the wing of the Chinese fighter that collided with a U.S. surveillance plane in April of 2001 were Israeli Python missiles; missiles designed by studying the technology of U.S. Sidewinder missiles sold to Israel years earlier. These are just two of a multitude of scenarios in which U.S. arms export s ha ve led to "uncontrolled" consequences.


 * "If we don't sell (fill in weapon) to (fill in country) someone else will." ** [|Counter-Point:]: ** The U.S. can use its considerable political-economic clout to encourage its allies to adopt common export criteria. With ballistic and cruise missiles and anti-personnel landmines, the U.S. government ceased exports unilaterally and then successfully encouraged others to follow suit, effectively removing these weapons from the international market **//** . **//

Point: Article 51 of the U.N. Charter gives every country has the right to self-defense. Therefore, since many nations do not produce their own weaponry, we are required to trade in arms. __Counter-Point:__ The U.N. Charter in no way mandates that any government must provide arms to any other government.


 * Point: If we restrict arms exportation American jobs will be lost. ** [|Counter-Point:] ** When assessing the employment "benefits" of arms exportation we must take into consideration the $7 billion plus in subsidies that underwrite the arms trade. The same investment in any other industry would create as m uch -if not more- employment  . By moving productions jobs overseas, offsets **** also undercut the jobs argument. **

<span style="color: #317ae3; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 190%;">Notable Quotes

**"I have seen no evidence in my 24 years in Congress of one instance where because of American military involvement with another military that the Americans have stopped that foreign army from carrying out atrocities against their own people."-Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)**

"I would not feel any better to find American troops shot down with technology supplied by American companies if I knew there was mass marketing of those products." -Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN) <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: center;">"No solution to ... the broad challenge posed by illicit arms sales worldwide will be complete or materialize overnight. But governments have a responsibility to keep arms transactions transparent and make those involved accountable." -former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright

<span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Book','sans-serif'; font-size: 26pt; line-height: 115%;">
 * [[image:Citation_pic.gif width="148" height="192" align="left"]] Work Cited: **

Ainger, Katherine, and others. "The Scramble for Africa." New Internationalist (Oxford, England) Vol. 367 May 2004: 9-27. //SIRS Researcher.// Web. 07 February 2010.

Burnett, John S. "Pirates of the 21st Century." Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA) 04 Oct 2008: p. A.21. //SIRS Researcher.// Web. 07 February 2010.

Castillo, E. Eduardo, and Michelle Roberts. "Mexico's Weapons Cache Stymies Tracing." Natchez Democrat (Natchez, MS) 06 May 2009: n.p. //SIRS Researcher.// Web. 07 February 2010.

"Charts." //Legal U.S. Arms Exports May Be Source of Narco Syndicates Rising Firepower//. Web. 22 Feb 2010. <http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2009/03/legal-us-arms-exports-may-be-source-narco-syndicates-rising-firepower>. <span style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-width: 1pt; color: #0e0e0e;">Childress, Sarah. "Zimbabwe Escapes Diamond Sanction--Inside Mozambique, the Trade..." Wall Street Journal-Asia 06 Nov 2009: 9.//SIRS Researcher.// Web.09 February 2010.

"CIA - The World Factbook - Reference: Flags of the World" cia.gov. n.d. Web. 21 Feb 2010 <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/flagsoftheworld.html>.

"Correlation Between Crime and Gin Control in England" Dotson.net. n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2010 <http://ron.dotson.net/images/england_crime.gif>.

"Crime" office.microsoft.com. microsoft, n.d. Web. 20 February 2010.

"Culture of Violence: Gun crime goes up by 89% in a decade" dailymail.co.uk, James Slack 27 October 2009. Web. 20 February 2010.

Drogin, Bob. "Botched Iraqi Arms Deal Is Detailed." Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA) Oct. 4 2003: n.p. //SIRS Researcher.// Web. 07 February 2010.

E Benjamin Skinner, //A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery,// (New York: Free Press,2008), page 82.

Farley, Maggie. "U.N. Approves Resolution to Curb Spread of Illicit Arms." Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA) 29 Apr 2004 <span style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-width: 1pt; color: #0e0e0e;">Gillis, Charlie. "American Guns, Canadian Violence." Maclean's (Toronto, Canada) Vol. 118, No. 33 Aug. 15 2005: 18+. //<span style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-width: 1pt; color: #0e0e0e;">SIRS Researcher. //<span style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-width: 1pt; color: #0e0e0e;">Web. 09 February 2010.

"Guns." //Legal U.S. Arms Exports May Be Source of Narco Syndicates Rising Firepower//. Web. 22 Feb 2010. <"Charts." Legal U.S. Arms Exports May Be Source of Narco Syndicates Rising Firepower. Web. 22 Feb 2010. >.

"Gun Control" Pollingpoint.com. n.d. Web. 22 Feb 2010 <http://www.pollingpoint.com/files/results/gunControl/chart_gun2.gif>.

Heinzmann, David. "Gangs' Gun Pipeline from Mississippi Delta Brings Death to Chicago..." Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL) Feb. 18 2004: n.p. //SIRS Researcher.// Web. 07 February 2010.

Herbert, Bob “A Culture Soaked in Blood” __The New York Times__ (April 25, 2009) Editorial Desk __Global Issues in Context__ 4 Jan. 2010 <http://find.galegroup.com/gic/start.do?prodld=GIC>.

Hiltermann, Joost R. __U.N. Conference on Small Arms Trafficking, New York.__ United Nations. New York. 8 Jul. 2001. Public Address.

"Human Trafficking" www.today.ucla.edu. UCLAToday, n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2010.

"Issue of the Day" theissue.com. The Issue, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2010.<http://theissue.com/issue/11547.html>.

Mauser, Gary “One Thing’s for Sure, Crime Causes Gun Laws” __Globe & Mail (Toronto, Canada__ (Sept 18, 2006) __Global Issues in Context__ Gale. 4 Jan. 2010 <http://find.galegroup.com /gic/start.do?prodld=GIC>.

"Members." //Weapons for Warlords: Arms Trafficking in the Gulf of Aden//. Web. 16 Feb 2010. <http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=35148&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=61&cHash=294f0db733>.

Millman, Joel. "U.S. Gun Trial Echoes in Drug-Torn Mexico." Wall Street Journal 02 Mar 2009.

Porth, Jacquelyn S. "U.S. Official Says World Needs Tools to Fight Spread of Weapons." America.gov Press Release 02 Jun 2008.

Renner, Michael. "An Epidemic of Guns." World Watch. July/Aug. 1998.

"Skirting the Ban" Nytimes.com. n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2010 <http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/09/10/national/0910gun_graph.gif>.

Silverstein, Ken. "Licensed to Kill." Harper's May 2000: 52-66. //<span style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-width: 1pt; color: #0e0e0e;">SIRS Researcher. // Web. 09 February 2010.

"Illegal imports exports to/from Mexico" Thefirearmblog.com. n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2010 <http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/mexican-gun-imports.jpg>.

"The True Reason why Arms Sales are Down Globally..." cartoonstock.com. cardstock, n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2010.

“Time to talk about Violence and Culture” __Globe & Mail (Toronto, Canada)__ (Dec 29, 2005) __Global Issues in Context__ Gale. 4 Jan. 2010 <http://find.galegroup.com/gic/start.do?prodld=GIC>.

Unknown. "Arms and Conflict in Africa." Arms and Conflict in Africa July 1999.

"Usefulness of Shotgun in Video Games" Graphjam.com. n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2010 <http://graphjam.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/song-chart-memes-shotgun-games.jpg>. "World: Africa Light weapon trade 'Fuels African War'" news.bbc.co.uk. BCC news. 15 July 1995. Web. 20 Feb. 2010 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/390000/images/_394786_africa_guns2.gif.>.

Page Designer, Graphics, Causes, & Other information; Aralee Fajardo :D Prove and Effects, Video, & Pictures; Xavier R. Solutions; Stephanie G.