If you are a journalist working in a conflict zone you might be able to help contribute to an ongoing investigation to track down weapons lost during the Iraq war.

Since 2003 the American army has lost more than 110,000 AK-47’s. The arms have likely leaked into informal arms networks and have begun to spread to militant movements around the world. While many weapons surely stay in Iraq, others probably have found their ways into the hands of militant movements in Africa and across Asia.

Many of us journalists in conflict zones take photos of militants posing with their weapons. If you have photos like that in your archives, then you might be able to zoom in on the serial numbers of the guns. I’m collecting as many serial numbers as possible and sending them on to contacts who have access to databases that might be able to ID the origin of the weapons.

Most AK’s have identifying marks on their right side. Usually just above the clip or below the barrel. The marks aren’t always numbers (sometimes just symbols) but they are large and often will show up on a hi-res image.

Please send me whatever gun images you have along with where you took the photo and the date it was taken. If we come up with a match I’ll credit you with helping break the story.

As you can imagine, if we come up with a match this will be big news.

Feel free to e-mail me or post here at : sgcarney@gmail.com

Best,

Scott