New Situation Update on the global authorized trade in small arms

Based on UN Comtrade data, reported global small arms and light weapons (hereafter ‘small arms’) exports rose sharply from USD 5 billion in 2019 to USD 9.2 billion in 2024. Consistent with previous trade updates, ammunition remains the most traded weapon category, accounting for 35% of the value of reported global imports for the period 2019–24, followed by sporting and hunting shotguns and rifles (21%), and pistols and revolvers (18%).

The Authorized Trade in Small Arms: Latin America from a Global Perspective—a new Situation Update from the Mapping the Transnational Circulation and Control of Small Arms in Latin America project—examines the global authorized trade in small arms between 2019 and 2024, with a particular focus on trends in Latin America. It finds the region to be a comparatively small player in the global authorized small arms trade, accounting for 2.8% of global small arms imports and 6.3% of exports. Yet military firearms represented about 10% of all Latin American small arms imports during this period—almost double the global average of 5.6%.

The Situation Update also identifies a significant increase in European—and in particular Eastern European—imports during this period, which seem to have fuelled the growing trade. Indeed, European imports accounted for 40% of all reported global imports in 2024, while the value of Eastern European imports multiplied by more than ten between 2019 and 2024.

Read: The Authorized Trade in Small Arms: Latin America from a Global Perspective

For more, check out:

• Trends in Trafficking: Comparing US-based Firearms Trafficking to the Caribbean and Latin America (November 2024)—a Situation Update that provides an initial analysis of newly acquired US government data on seizures of outbound firearms shipments at US ports.
• Critical Gaps: Firearms and Gender-based Violence in Chile (April 2025)—a Research Paper that provides an overview of the current status of gender-responsive small arms control and violent crime in Chile.
• A Critical Intersection: Private Security Companies, Gender-based Violence, and the Arms Trade (October 2024)—a blog post that discusses the private security industry in Latin America, and concerns about whether the industry has adequate safeguards to prevent sexual and gender-based violence, and other human rights abuses, by its personnel.
• Trade Update 2020: An Eye on Ammunition Transfers to Africa (December 2020)—the previous Trade Update that delves into cases of authorized small arms ammunition transfers to Africa through exploring the potential of beyond-the-norm data sources.
• The Mapping the Transnational Circulation and Control of Small Arms in Latin America project page
• Other outputs about the Americas in our Resource Library

Other news from the Survey:

• New podcast on explosive precursor chemicals regulation
• New SANA Briefing Paper on security, ideology, and firearms in Lebanon and Tunisia
• Final meeting of the Ukrainian Networking Group within the framework of the 'Supporting Ukraine in addressing the risks of small arms and light weapons proliferation from the Russian war of aggression' project
• New video on what Ukraine can learn from Kosovo
• New Small Arms Survey Annual Report 2024