For the first time ever, the world’s governments are gathering in New York this week to discuss how to curb the illegal trafficking of guns, grenades and other small arms – weapons that kill a half a million people each year.

The U.N. Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons, which began last week and continues through July 20, addresses this critical humanitarian issue.

• With 1,300 people killed daily, small arms have become “the real weapons of mass destruction.”
  
  
• Of the 49 major conflicts fought during the 1990s, small arms were the weapons of choice in 46 of them. Ninety percent of those who died were civilians; 80 percent of those were women and children.
  
  
• In North America, the costs of medical expenses and loss of productivity due to small arms violence total $100 billion a year.
  
  
• Gun-running is epidemic in the United States as well as overseas. Firearms sold at gun shows and other unregulated venues often land in the wrong hands, fueling further violence.