An estimate of the global value of small arms production in 2002 is $7.4 billion. Well over 1,000 companies manufacture light weapons and ammunition in nearly 100 countries. More than half of what is manufactured, $4 billion-worth, is transferred legally across national borders, while as much as $1 billion-worth enters the international black market. Credible estimates have only become available in recent years as arms trade researchers, international organizations, and activists have increasingly turned their attention to what was once merely a footnote in scholarship and policymaking on matters of proliferation and arms control. Far more people are killed by rifles, pistols, grenades, and landmines (not to mention machetes) than attack aircraft, main battle tanks, and missiles. Small arms are, in a very real sense, weapons of mass destruction.
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