AllMovie

Director Sander Francken ponders the manner in which small arms produced in developed countries rule and ruin the lives of those living in developing countries in this ambitious documentary that's half exposé, and half horrifying reality show. Conversations with the very people whose livelihoods depend on the ongoing demand for small arms around the globe afford Francken the rare opportunity to ponder the causes and impact of trade both legal and illegal, while an investigation into the origins of the weapons reveals how brokers purchase guns collected by the EU and NATO during their mission in Bosnia, and quickly transfer the firearms to African battlefields. There, the locals continue to perpetuate the cycle of violence simply because they were instructed to take up arms against their neighbors. Shot on location in the United States, the Netherlands, Cambodia, Eastern Congo, Uganda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and Germany, Dealing and Wheeling in Small Arms posits that the brand of deadly paranoia used to ensure that the killing goes on unabated is actually part of a larger plan of premeditated political destabilization designed to economically exploit the precious natural resources of smaller, undeveloped countries.