The 2008 Small Arms Survey was released last week and claimed that 650,000 guns were lost by civilian owners and ended up in the hands of militants.

From the AP (via the IHT):

One of every 1,000 civilian-owned guns in the world is lost or stolen and can wind up in the hands of militants in nations like Iraq and Afghanistan, a Swiss institute says in a new survey Monday.

Most of the lost guns flow to nations that “rarely engage in some of the most basic verification procedures,” said Jurg Streuli, a Swiss diplomat and representative to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland.

Among the other countries affected by this diversion of small arms are Colombia, Sri Lanka, Somalia and Liberia.

As many as 650,000 weapons owned by civilians have gone missing, says the annual Small Arms Survey compiled by researchers at the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

Read more from the 2008 Small Arms Survey page.