ABSTRACT
Part II of this book is concerned with examining the inter-relationships between arms flows, availability and armed violence in societies that are not experiencing large-scale violent conflict. In these contexts, the relative importance of small arms stands out. In contrast to major conventional weapons (and also to light weapons), small arms are widely held by a range of civilian state agencies, such as the police, as well as armed forces. Moreover, in most countries there are large private holdings of firearms by private security companies or militias and by civilians for purposes of recreation or protection. Recent research shows that a clear majority of small arms production and trade across the world is for civilian markets (for example, Dreyfus et al., 2009).
