Arms

 Small Arms Data Observatory (SADO) launched
A new website launched by an international consortium of researchers which will focus upon quantitative data . Many researchers are based at  Joan B. Kroc School for Peace Studies at the University of San Diego and there will be a focus initially on  North America, Central America and South America.  Information on the website is  currently limited, but they aim to produce working papers as well as data for downloading.

Other useful sources for small arms research include:

• SPIRI  which covers all aspects of weapons, arms and the arms trade  The renown SPIRI military expenditure and arms trade databases covers from 1988 onwards.
• United Nations Section for Disarmament has materials on  small arms.
• The Small Arms Survey is an independent research project located at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. Its flagship publication is the Small Arms Survey Yearbook which can be downloaded from 2001 onwards from the website,  giving an overview of trends in manufacture, trade, expenditure and the human cost of firearms.
• Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers has a database of the international authorised trade in small arms and light weapons.  covering the period 1962-2011
• The Mapping Arms Data (MAD) visualization project produced by PRIO and the Igarapé Institute.  It represents an upgrade of the original global small arms, light weapons and ammunition visualization produced by Google as part of the Google Ideas INFO (Illicit Networks Forces in Opposition) Summit with support from the Igarapé Institute.  MAD features over 35 000 records of the exports and imports of small arms and ammunition from more than 262 states and territories between 1992 and 2011.