The European Union does not have a strong gun ownership culture or much public debate about firearms, yet it has become one of the world’s top exporters of small arms and light weapons.
Italy, Germany, and Austria are some of the world’s leading exporters. In 2025, the European firearms industry made €183 billion. Because of global instability, EU leaders are calling for more innovation and higher production.
In Europe, gun rights are generally seen as a privilege given by the state, and most countries require a valid reason to own a gun. The Czech Republic is the only EU country with a constitutional right to armed self-defence. Germany and France have about 5.8 million and 5 million registered guns, far fewer than the estimated 82 to 107 million gun owners in the United States.
Most of the controversy happens outside the EU. The EU faces criticism for selling weapons to countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE, where these arms are connected to internal repression and conflicts in Yemen and Sudan. Even though EU rules ban sales to human rights abusers, a lack of transparency in gun exports leads some to question if European countries put strategic interests before ethics.
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