Gun Trafficking and Violence: From The Global Network to The Local Security Challenge

This edited book addresses the issues of gun trafficking and gun violence across different regions of the world, including the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania. It seeks to identify global key trends on gun trafficking and related violence and discuss different enforcement measures. Each chapter is written by teams of distinguished academics and/or experienced practitioners to include practitioner insights and policy proposals on issues related to gun violence and gun trafficking.
Chapters offer an overview of violence and recent gun control debates in the regions, enumerate challenges, provide lessons learnt, and recommend policy solutions. An overview of the global small arms trade is provided at the beginning alongside a comparative analysis of common challenges and significant differences across the regions. This book speaks to those in Criminology, International Relations, Public Policy, International Security, Public health and Law, and to civil society organizations, think tanks, research centers, policy analysts and policy makers involved in gun control debates.


David Pérez Esparza holds a master’s in Conflict Resolution from the University of Essex, UK, a master’s in Security Science from the University College London (UCL), UK, and a master’s in Public Policy from EGAP, Mexico. With experience as Consultant to the IADB, the UK government, the EU, the UK-RUSI and numerous police agencies, David also holds a PhD in Crime Science from the Faculty of Engineering, UCL, and has co-authored five books on crime and data-driven security.

Carlos A. Pérez Ricart is Assistant Professor in International Relations at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico City. Prior to joining CIDE, he was Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford, UK, where he worked at both the History Faculty and the Latin American Centre, St. Antony’s College. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the Freie Universität Berlin.

Eugenio Weigend Vargas is Associate Director for Gun Violence Prevention at the Center for American Progress. His research has focused on preventing arms trafficking and gun violence in the USA and Mexico. He holds a master’s degree from Brown University, USA, and a PhD in Public Policy from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Mexico.