In a BBC interview last July, US President Barack Obama admitted that failure to pass "common sense gun safety laws" in the US has been the greatest frustration of his presidency. Since he took office in 2008, there have been repeated mass shootings including the 2011 Tucson Arizona shooting in which Gabrielle Giffords, then a member of Congress and 18 others were shot in a supermarket parking lot. Six people died that day. Another shooting was at Emanuel African... (GunPolicy.org)

Private security companies guarding ships against Somali pirates are increasingly storing their weapons on so-called "floating armouries" in international waters, to avoid arms smuggling laws when they dock in ports. About 20 ships stocked with assault rifles and other small arms as well as ammunition, body armour and night vision goggles are scattered around the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, the EU naval force has confirmed. The legal status of... (GunPolicy.org)

The State Security Court has cleared four men of smuggling firearms and bullets into the UAE. Customs detected the "large amount" of guns and ammunition as they passed through Jebel Ali Port on their way to Djibouti from Turkey. Accompanying documents said it contained soap. The lawyer for the four men said they had no knowledge of the contents. He said they worked for a company in Dubai that specialises in shipments that transit through the UAE. The company is said... (GunPolicy.org)

Authorities in this southern Spanish port seized 22,272 pistols that were being smuggled in a container declared to be transporting textiles from Turkey to the East African nation of Djibouti. The weapons, which could have fetched more than 2 million euros ($2.5 million) on the international arms market, were seized on Aug. 28 in what is considered to be the largest illegal arms shipment intercepted by Spanish customs authorities in recent years, the Civil Guard and... (GunPolicy.org)

NAIROBI, Kenya — Private security firms are storing their guns aboard floating armories in international waters so ships that want armed anti-piracy guards for East Africa's pirate-infested waters can cut costs and circumvent laws limiting the import and export of weapons, industry officials say. Companies and legal experts say the operation of the armories is a "legal gray area" because few, if any, governments have laws governing the practice. Some security... (GunPolicy.org)

Rwanda was, on Tuesday, elected to spearhead a regional campaign against illicit small arms and light weapons. The country was picked by delegates attending a ministerial council meeting of the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA), a grouping of 15 eastern and central African countries, dedicated to eradicating the proliferation of illegal arms across their borders. The meeting was held in the Horn of African nation of Djibouti. Rwanda was elected on the basis of... (GunPolicy.org)

The Executive Secretary of the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA), Dr. Francis K. Sang, has called upon all countries within the region to come up with more mechanisms and strategies to fight against the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons. RECSA is an intergovernmental body based in Nairobi, Kenya, bringing together 13 countries from the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa region. All member states that subscribe to the centre, including Rwanda, are... (GunPolicy.org)

The Regional Centre on Small Arms (Recsa) is procuring a database software to facilitate firearms marking, record keeping and trade of light weapons in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa. Speaking at a two-day regional workshop in Dar es Salaam on Thursday, the Recsa Monitoring and Evaluation head, Mr Nestory Mpembela, said with the database software, small arms and light weapons particulars would be at finger tips. "This product will immensely and positively... (GunPolicy.org)

MOGADISHU — Sitting on a mat at home between taking orders for arms on his two mobile phones, Osman Bare gives thanks for the riches flowing from Somalia's war. "I have only been in the weapon business five years, but I have erected three villas. I have also opened shops for my two wives," said the 40-year-old, one of about 400 Somali men operating in Mogadishu's main weapons market. "Peace means bankruptcy for us." Despite a U.N. arms embargo on Somalia, the Horn... (GunPolicy.org)

NAIROBI — All firearms in the Great Lakes Region, East Africa and the Horn of Africa will soon be marked with country codes, force code and serial numbers in the fight against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. A workshop organised by the Regional Centre on Small Arms and held recently on Kenya's South Coast was told that 12 manual arms-marking machines have already been purchased through funding from the US government and will be distributed to each... (GunPolicy.org)

DJIBOUTI — The minister delegate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mr Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, today opened an important two-day workshop on the supervision of small arms and light weapon stocks and the collection and destruction of surplus weapons. This meeting, the third part in the series following those held in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, is being held in the framework of the implementation of the March 2000 Nairobi Declaration aiming... (GunPolicy.org)