Buy It, Steal It, Print It: How Right-Wing Extremists in Europe Acquire Firearms and What To Do About It

Description:

This policy brief analyses how right-wing extremists in Europe acquire firearms, drawing on a dataset of 118 cases between 2019 and 2024. It shows that extremists use a mix of legal and illegal methods to obtain weapons, including purchasing firearms legally, acquiring them through illicit markets, stealing them from military or law-enforcement sources, and manufacturing weapons themselves, particularly through emerging technologies such as 3D printing. The report evaluates the effectiveness of existing EU policies and identifies regulatory and enforcement gaps, including weaknesses in background checks for gun licences and oversight of security personnel with access to weapons. By highlighting how extremist actors exploit both legal systems and technological developments, the brief provides important insights for policymakers and practitioners seeking to understand risk dynamics and develop more targeted prevention and control strategies regarding extremist access to weapons

Link:

Read the document

Language:

English

Date:

11.03.2026

Proposed by:

PPHS

Source:

International Centre for Counter‑Terrorism (ICCT), 2024