September 1997

Small Arms Proliferation:

Should We Allow Importation of Assault Weapon "Curios or Relics"?

Cheap, portable and easy to conceal, small arms were the weapons of choice in the nearly 50 major conflicts afflicting the world in 1996. In Latin America, South Asia, and Africa, light weapons from legal sales, aid programs, and smuggling rings are arming not only government forces but right-wing death squads and leftist insurgents, drug cartels and urban gangs. The last five times the U.S. sent troops into combat, they faced forces carrying U.S. made arms. And small arms continue to pose a growing threat to peacekeepers and relief workers.

Many experts believe that the only effective remedy for this epidemic of global gun-running is global gun control to reduce the trade of assault rifles, handguns, and other combat weapons. Proposed legislation in Congress would limit purchases of firearms to one gun a month and curtail the buying sprees of Latin American drug dealers who smuggle their killer cargo south of the border. And a United Nation's panel was also studying how to reduce the dangerous and destabilizing flow of small arms to regions of chronic conflict.

This Mainstream Media Project campaign involved 17 guests in 71 radio interviews, and was also covered in print.

Guest Speakers

Michael Beard, President, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

Sarah Brady, Chair, Handgun Control, Inc.

Natalie Goldring, Deputy Director, British American Security Information Council (BASIC)

William Hartung, Director, Project on the Control of the International Arms Trade, World Policy Institute

Cheryl Jacques, Massachusetts State Senator

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Senator

Lora Lumpe, Director, Arms Sales Monitoring Project, Federation of American Scientists

Tracy McCaffery, Physicians for Social Responsibility

Scott Nathanson, Senior Researcher, Demilitarization for Democracy

Frank Smyth, Journalist