Armament Research Services (ARES) has a database of Conflict Material (CONMAT), logging arms and munitions documented within the illicit sphere in conflict and post-conflict zones. I have been working on co-athoring a report with N.R. Jenzen-Jones covering Libyan arms trading conducted via social media platforms between November 2014 and November 2015 for Small Arms Survey. One of the interesting side benefits of digging through a database of thousands of documented arms is finding some particularly old items that have been wandering the planet for 50 or 100 years.

For example, this Italian M91 Carcano cavalry carbine. It could have been lost during the North African campaigns of WWII, or could have come into the country at some other time thanks to Italy’s colonial influence in Libya. It’s chambered in 6.5mm (we can tell this from the rear sight configuration), and it actually not a bad little gun, contrary to its reputation (although…