With the seizure last week of 2000 AK-47s in San Francisco, its time for Americans to wake up and take the lead to reign in the massive trade in assault weapons -- licit and illicit -- circulating throughout the world. For too long Americans have viewed the illicit gun trade as a minor problem when compared to such global dangers as nuclear proliferation and drug trafficking. PNS contributor Michael T. Klare, professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, co-edited "Lethal Commerce: The Global Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons" (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1995).

The breakup last week of a Chinese gun-smuggling ring in San Francisco -- netting the largest seizure of illicit assault weapons in U.S. history -- represents but the tip of the iceberg of international arms trafficking. Despite the hoopla over the current arrests, U.S. officials have devoted little attention to the global epidemic of arms smuggling.

Many millions of guns -- Russian and Chinese-made AK-47s, U.S. M- 16s, German G-3s and so on -- are distributed each year through black market channels. These guns do far more than supply urban gangs or narco-traffickers. They fuel real wars in places like Liberia, Colombia, Somalia, Kashmir and Chechnya.

The illicit arms trade works a lot like the illicit drug trade: in each case, dealers use a variety of clandestine routes and methods to transport contraband across international boundaries. In both cases the dealers involved are sophisticated international entrepreneurs who have become adept at circumventing government interdiction efforts.

But there are differences as well. For one, the United States is not just a recipient in the gun trade but a major supplier as well. For another, many gun dealers operate on both sides of the law -- selling through legal channels when they can, turning to illicit routes when government regulations make legal sales difficult or impossible. Norinco, one of two Chinese arms firms allegedly involved in smuggling ring in San Francisco, sells many guns and other weapons to a wide variety of legitimate clients around the world every year.

Guns usually enter the illegal market through one of several methods. In some cases, they are stolen from government arsenals or acquired from corrupt guards and officials. Many of the guns now in international circulation were originally procured from loosely guarded stock piles in the former Soviet Union where destitute soldiers are all too willing to sell weapons and ammunition for extra dollars.

In other cases supposedly legitimate firms deliver arms to "front" companies in allowable destinations -- often international ports like Rotterdam, Hong Kong and Karachi -- where they are reloaded onto other ships or planes and carried to illicit destinations like Iran, Liberia or North Korea.

Governments have also been known to engage in illicit arms trafficking. In the 1980s, for instance, the United States provided millions of AK-47s and other light weapons, many of them purchased from China, to the anti-Soviet Mujahideen guerrilla fighters in Afghanistan. (Now, some of these same rebels have gone into illicit trafficking themselves, selling U.S.-supplied weapons on the global black market.) The Soviets, for their part, assisted in the clandestine shipment of arms to rebel groups in Africa and Latin America. Today, the Iranian government is suspected of employing such methods to supply weapons to Bosnian Muslims, the Hezbollah in Lebanon and other Muslim groups.

The commercial gun market in the United States provides another source of illicit arms. Most of the guns carried by guerrillas and narco-traffickers in Latin America originated in gun stores in California, Florida, Texas and other southern states. Typically, smugglers acquire these weapons by posing as law-abiding gun owners and then shipping them south of the border in the same small planes and boats they use to smuggle cocaine and heroin into the United States.

Together, these various smuggling operations constitute a global system of arms supply that in some cases rivals the legal trade in weapons. As demonstrated by the ongoing violence in Liberia, Chechnya, Somalia and other hot spots, this clandestine supply system is perfectly capable of sustaining major conflicts in remote and inaccessible areas of the world.

Despite its lethal impact, however, most governments have paid little attention to the illicit trade in weapons. In fact, several lend tacit support to what is a highly profitable business.

The United States has a very mixed record in this regard. The Customs Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have responsibility for stemming the flow of illegal arms into and out of the country but lack sufficient manpower and resources to do a thorough job. Moreover, lax gun ownership laws in many states make it relatively easy for illegal traffickers to obtain weapons through commercial channels. And many politicians are reluctant to clamp down on the gun trade for fear of alienating the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun lobbies. As a result, black market dealers are often able to circumvent existing barriers to their operations.

The seizure of 2,000 AK-47s in San Francisco should be a wakeup call for Americans. (Congress banned their import in 1989 after an assailant raked a Stockton, Calif., school yard with AK-47 fire). For too long, we've viewed the illegal gun trade as a minor problem when compared to such global dangers as nuclear proliferation and drug trafficking. But the proliferation of guns is just as damaging to world stability as is the proliferation of nuclear technology, and the organizations involved in drug trafficking rely on black market arms to overpower the police and army of their home countries.

If the United States wishes to stem the flow of illicit arms, it must provide additional resources to the agencies involved and tighten existing restraints on gun ownership and sales. And if we hope to make the whole world safer from gun violence, we need to work with other countries to suppress the global black market in arms.