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The 2025 annual turnover of the European gun industry reached an all-time high of €183 billion, while the Commission’s mobilisation of €800 billion for security and defence through ReArm Europe boosted weapon and ammunition manufacturing capacity from roughly 300,000 rounds in 2022 to 2 million rounds in 2025.
Europe accounts for about 25% of global arms exports. Latest data report over 33,700 arms export licences in 2023, with a value of more than €298 billion for military equipment and technology.
While this strong position in the arms market has led to debates about the balance between security and revenue, the EU is planning to introduce a more harmonised and stricter legislation for buying and owning weapons.
In 2025, the European Commission said that civilians in the EU owned 35 million illicit weapons in 2017, which was 56% of all estimated firearms. National differences in gun laws still make it difficult to create a single EU-wide firearms ruleset.
The EU can establish minimum standards for guns in the common market, but each country keeps control over its own laws. As a result, a semi-automatic rifle might be legal in one country but banned in another, creating loopholes for illegal gun trafficking.
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