In recent months, Asian intelligence officials and well-placed ethnic sources have confirmed to Asia Times that much of the Chinese weaponry purchased by the UWSA [United Wa State Army] since 2011 has been channeled through neighboring Laos. Official end-user certificates (EUCs) issued to cover exports by state-run manufacturers such as North China Industries Group Corporation (NORINCO) and China National Precision Machinery Import-Export Corporation (responsible for... (GunPolicy.org)

Spurred by outrage over recent mass shootings, California lawmakers on Thursday sent Gov. Jerry Brown a sweeping package of gun control bills, including a ban on the sale of semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines, background checks for those buying ammunition and new restrictions on homemade firearms. The flood of bills was introduced in response to the December terrorist attack in San Bernardino that killed 14 people at a holiday party, but momentum for... (GunPolicy.org)

Lao authorities have put in place a new rule that requires the re-registration of firearms—including those owned by police officers, soldiers and village security officials—in an effort to eradicate illegal firearm possession, an Internal Security Ministry official said. "All guns will be re-inspected, [including] guns already dispensed internally and guns belonging to society at large," the official, who is based in the capital Vientiane, but declined to be... (GunPolicy.org)

PHNOM PENH -- The ASEAN security officials gathered here on Wednesday to seek effective measures for cooperation to prevent disasters caused by illegal arms smuggling and trafficking, said Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Kheng. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the three-day ASEAN workshop on Small Arms, Light Weapons and Unexploded Ordnances Control, Sar Kheng said the meeting was very important to identify effective measures for... (GunPolicy.org)

NEW DELHI - Northeast outfits are employing crafty financial methods to procure arms worth millions of dollars and make them look like legitimate legal buys. A series of arrests by the National Investigation Agency of militants from various outfits has revealed formulae that take the best financial brains to come up with. A number of such devices tumbled out of the militants' closets after the NIA arrested NSCN (I-M) leader Anthony Shimray and over 20 United National... (GunPolicy.org)

DIMAPUR — Small arms wielded by Northeast militants and Maoists invariably find their way in from Yunan province of southern China through the Chin people in Myanmar. But forces handling security this side of the India-Myanmar border have "no reasons yet" to suspect Beijing's official involvement in the gun-running racket. Chinese copies of weapons such as the American M-16 rifles and Russian Kalashnikovs — AK-47s and AK-56s — are cheaper but almost as... (GunPolicy.org)