These companies must look beyond narrow, shortterm interests and start to appreciate the real impact of this trade on the lives of people. In other words, they must become part of the solution. There are encouraging steps. This is what I mean by responsible behaviour. We also need to think of new ways to approach the problem of small arms.
Small arms are ubiquitous, but they are useless without ammunition.
We should consider how we might track, control or mark ammunition as one way of controlling the lethal effect of these weapons. We should look at unilateral actions such as the destruction of surplus stocks. South Africa did it because they had the foresight to know they had to destroy these weapons before they could kill. Clearly, the approach must be both comprehensive and systematic. That was the conclusion of the UN Group of Experts on Small Arms.