The UN Firearms Protocol will now take effect as a legally binding instrument, since Poland and Zambia became the 40th and 41st countries to ratify it. Find out if your country has ratified the protocol here.

The Protocol commits UN Member States to regulate the manufacture, export, import and transit of firearms. It also requires firearms to be marked and records to be kept for 10 years, and encourages (but does not require) the regulation of arms brokers. Unfortunately the Protocol does not regulate state-to-state gun transfers. Click here for the full text

The Protocol sends a "powerful message to criminal gangs and gunrunners around the world -- Your time is up!" according to Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC).

The Firearms Protocol supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (2000). The other global agreement on firearms, the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms (2001) is not legally-binding.