The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released a report stating that global arms sales went down by 5 percent in 2011, due to developed nations spending less. Companies are trying to diversify into other geographies and cyber security, and big U.S. companies still doing all right.
Proponents of the treaty have said that ongoing conflicts in Syria, Mali, Sudan, and recently, Libya, are fueled by the unregulated trade of weapons and ammunition, which fall into the wrong hands.
The European Parliament adopted a resolution Wednesday calling on United Nations member states to publicly disclose all arms trade deals, including reporting on small arms and light weapons.
“Since 2007, trace data shows a trend in recovered and submitted crime guns from Mexico shifting from pistols and revolvers to rifles,” the ATF said in a statement.
The world’s five largest importers of weapons over the last half decade are all in Asia, reflecting a variety of tensions playing out in the region, according to newly released data from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).