The firearms industry challenges progress on SDGs in the Middle East

Abstract Firearms violence is a grave public health issue globally. Relevant public health outcomes include in addition to death, long term disability, and mental health harms. Further adverse effects on public health in armed conflicts include forced displacement, destruction of life supporting infrastructure and natural resources, in addition to adverse outcomes on civilian populations caught up in wars and protracted crises, who bear the burden more if located in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) of the world. Firearms violence is understudied beyond recent research which focuses on gun violence at an individual level in the context of the Global North, such as in the US, and which rarely addresses the marketing and lobbying strategies of the firearms industry globally to increase sales and consumption of its products. This focus on civilian level gun ownership and violence obscures the influence of the underlying commercial determinant, the firearms industry. Armed conflicts globally are fueled to a great extent by the weapons produced by the firearms industry and their trade, the majority of which are manufactured in industrialized countries, such as the US, UK and China. Based on the above and through the commercial determinants of health framework, this presentation will illustrate using the Middle East as a case, how the firearms industry gravely undermines and threatens the majority of SGDs, 3 (health and well-being), 10 (inequality reduction) and 16 (peace and justice) directly, and several of the others indirectly. Implications for research are also discussed.