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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is, how do we arm the other eleven?"''
|'''Yuri Orlov''', ''[[Lord of War]]''}}
▲{{quote|''"There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is, how do we arm the other eleven?"''|'''Yuri Orlov''', ''[[Lord of War]]''}}
In its basic form, a person who sells weaponry. This results in a large variety of sub-types of these characters:
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These characters are generally depicted as slimy merchants of death, making money from brutal wars and providing the means to prolong the conflict. They may be inclined to start a [[War for Fun and Profit]], hoping to make money from selling weapons.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* [[Mad Scientist|Jail Scaglietti]] of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S]]''. It would be a shame to create all those advances in technology without someone using them after all. His biggest clients are {{spoiler|[[Government Conspiracy|the higher-ups]] of [[The Federation|the Time-Space Administration Bureau]] themselves}}.
* In ''[[Gun X Sword]]'', the protagonists encounter and are eventually assisted by an inventor and his ex-girlfriend, now the head of a [[Lady Land]] (the two later get back together). A flashback shows them selling equipment to people who ended up being the villains of one of the first episodes and they also previously supplied the [[Big Bad]], the Claw (again, not knowing his full intentions).
* The protagonists of ''[[Jormungand]]'' are mercenaries under the employ of H&C Logistics Incorporated, headed by their leader and ruthless arms dealer Koko Hekmatyar. She justifies what she does by claiming that making sure that every side is well-armed actually "promotes world peace".
* McCoy, the base quartermaster at ''[[Area 88]]'', sells weapons (and other goods) at exorbitant markups to the pilots. He occasionally offers deals like 50 Sidewinder missiles for $1000 (ca 1980, mind) to those who don't mind faulty fuses or warheads.
** Farina, the Italian mafioso in the manga and OVA, also qualifies.
* ''[[Gunsmith Cats]]'': Rally Vincent's official job (When she's not bounty hunting) is selling and customizing guns. Unusually for the Gun Shop Owner version of this trope, not only does she try not to sell to criminals, she has been known to track down people who use her guns for crimes and investigate people she suspects of planning to use her guns to commits crimes.
* ''[[Black Lagoon]]'''s [[Corrupt Church|"Rip-off Church"]], a catholic-flavour gun cartel running guns through the local church.
* {{spoiler|Enishi}} in ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]''.
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== Comic Books ==
* The [[Elseworlds]] miniseries ''JSA: The Liberty Files'', featuring [[Batman]] and the [[Justice Society of America]], featured the Joker as an arms dealer selling weapons to the Nazis.
* In ''[[
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* An Israeli one features in ''[[Charlie Wilson's War|Charlie Wilsons War]]'', played [[Fake Nationality|by Scot Ken Stott]].
* Tony Stark is one of these in ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]'', before he sees US forces get attacked with his own weapons and has a change of heart. Even after that, his weapons keep turning up in enemy hands. {{spoiler|Turns out [[Evil Chancellor|Obie]] had been going around behind his back.}}
* Owen Davian, the amoral, passive-aggressive, monotonic arms dealer villain of ''[[Mission: Impossible (film)||Mission Impossible]] 3''. His day job is hooking up terrorists with weapons of mass destruction, and his night job is exuding sociopathic menace. Even when captured, bound, and faced with death, he remains [[Dissonant Serenity|preternaturally calm]] and merely rattles off all the ways he will torture the hero's loved ones <s>if</s> '''when''' he gets free. The only time he shows a hint of fondness is when he aloofly recalls cruelly murdering one of the hero's partners ("That was nothing, that was... ''fun''. That was fun."). His chilling detachment is enhanced by the fact that he has [http://www.reverseshot.com/article/mi3 no backstory or any humanizing moments whatsoever].
* Jeebs in ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]''. He's definitely the slimy sort, handing illegal weapons to alien criminals.
* Brad Whitaker from ''[[The Living Daylights]]'', played by Joe Don Baker. He used to provide weapons to the Soviets until General Pushkin came down to Tangiers and cut him off. Whitaker subsequently asked Koskov to kill Pushkin to provide coverage for his opium smuggling operations. This arms dealer is seen for a very short portion of the movie, instead acting as an [[Armchair Military|armchair general]] who likes to play with toy soldiers.
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* In ''[[City of God]]'', a group of gun runners sell some weapons to young gangsters. They point to a Star of David engraved on an Uzi and note that the gun is "Jewish" as a selling point.
* In ''[[The Boondock Saints]]'', the brothers buy guns and other supplies from a basement arms dealer with clear IRA ties.
* In ''[[The Quick and the Dead]]'', the Kid works a day job as the town's gunsmith.
* In the Serbian film ''[[Underground]]'', Marko and Blacky supposedly act as gun runners for the resistance against the Nazis during World War 2. In reality, they drink and gamble most of the money away. Much later, Marko and Natalija become arms dealers during the Yugoslav wars. {{spoiler|Blacky has them executed as "war profiteers" before realizing who they are.}}
* Both Valentin Zukovsky and the Janus syndicate in ''[[
* Bully Hayes is dealing firearms to the native islanders in the opening of ''[[Nate and Hayes]]''.
* The film ''Strapped'' features the delivery boy Diquan Mitchell getting heavily involved in arms trafficking in the ghetto in a plot to get his pregnant girlfriend out of prison.
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* Chevy Chase and Gregory Hines in ''[[Deal Of The Century]]''.
* There's a slightly unusual gun rurnner in ''[[The Salton Sea]]''.
* In ''[[Casablanca]]'', Rick Blaine was this in Ethiopia and during the Spanish Civil War, according to his [[Backstory]]. Apparently he did it for the cause, although [[Not in This For Your Revolution|he was unwilling to admit it]] and certainly had no problem pocketing the pay he got out of it. He was told, "The winning side would have paid much better" and replied ambiguously. Actually, the winning side would not have paid him at all because they would have been purchasing from reliable arms cartels, not smugglers; while the Ethiopians at least would have needed unconventional sources because they were strapped for cash.
== Fan Works ==
* In the aftermath of the 3rd Harbinger battle in ''[[Aeon Entelechy Evangelion]]'' there were a lot of munitions that didn't explode or were abandoned in the chaos, which the local ghouls scavenge and sell to interested parties like the Eldritch Society.
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* ''[[Star Trek]]'':
** A majority of the Ferengi race fit this trope. They are willing to sell anything to anyone all in the name of profit,
** In the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "Business as Usual" Quark dabbles in the arms trade until his nightmares are haunted by the images of the people killed by his weapons.
* In ''[[Smallville]]'', Lex Luthor becomes one, turning LuthorCorp from an agricultural business to a weapons manufactor, around Season 5, when he fully enbraces his [[Face Heel Turn]].
* They show up in ''[[Burn Notice]]'' in all their varying alignments; good...ish ([[Heroic Comedic Sociopath|Fiona]]), neutral ([[Cloudcuckoolander|Seymour]]), and villainous ([[Dangerously Genre Savvy|Brennan]]).
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The [[White Wolf]] collectible card game ''Vampire: The Eternal Struggle'' featured an ally card called Arms Dealer. While in play, the Arms Dealer can take an action to allow the
* Very common in ''[[Shadowrun]]''. Arms dealers are known as 'Fixers' (as in "I can fix you up with something"). Fixers not only deal in arms, but in body armor, black market cyberdecks and programs, and even cybernetic modifications. The Crime Mall is perhaps the most brazen example, actually operating open-to-the-public storefronts out of an [https://web.archive.org/web/20130915132347/http://www.southhillmall.com/home/index.ch2 abandoned shopping mall] in the Puyallup Barrens.
* Several factions function like this at one time or another in ''[[BattleTech]]''. The Free Worlds League and the Lyran Commonwealth/Alliance are both known for it, but the one who really takes the cake is probably Clan Diamond Shark, which despite being part of Battletech's [[Proud Warrior Race]] would much rather sell guns to you than fight you.
* Fairly common in ''[[Inquisitor]]'' and ''[[Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay]]'' game lines. ''[[Dark Heresy]]'' also has a system of [[Friend in the Black Market|Contacts]], whose possible abilities include significant discount and/or improved Availability (vs. open market values) for a category of goods — it's one of the most obvious uses. Sure, one Contact (who sits in one place, while your Acolytes may have to travel anywhere across entire Sector) with access to military equipment + 30% discount on ammo and nothing else is worth more XP than good relations with a whole Imperial organization, but given how expensive ammunition for bolters and exotic weapons is...
* In ''[[Rifts]]'' you not only have the Black Market (your standard shady arms dealers) and independent gun shops, but a number of companies such as Wilk's and Northern Gun also sell their wares directly.
== Theatre ==
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* ''Elite''.
* ''[[Privateer]]''.
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]''.
** Drebin is actually a twist on the concept. In addition to [[Soul Brotha|fitting none of the above sub-types]] (he's probably best described as a combo of the Gun Shop owner and the international arms dealer), he describes himself not as an arms dealer, but a gun ''launderer,'' someone who offers a way around an ID lock system integrated into the military and industrial-military infrastructure on a global level.
*** Though in some ways he (and his bretheren) fall under the heading of {{spoiler|Minister for Defense Export, as they are taking their marching orders direct from The Patriots; in general, their activities let weaker forces keep fighting by allowing them to reuse battlefield salvaged guns, which in turn stretches conflicts and helps fuel the War Economy.}}
*** Coincidentally, the same voice actor also played Smuggler in Deus Ex who is...you guessed it: an arms dealer!
** Additionally, ''[[Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops]]'' had "Arms Dealer" as a skill for recruitable characters. They allow you to find more weapons and ammo in levels, and it's extremely useful for the [[Expansion Pack]], where Infinity Mode drops you into levels where [[With This Herring|you don't start with any gear.]]
* ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'': "Welcome, strayn-jah! Got somethin' that might interest you...."
** He doesn't clearly fit into any of the above classification, and not because he doesn't sell ammo.
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* Hammer in ''[[Castlevania: Chronicles of Sorrow]]''. Though he sells stuff besides weapons, most of his inventory is weapons and he's generally seen in front of a crate with various weapons sticking out.
* ''[[Army of Two]]'' features four NPCs who sell the characters their armory. Of those four, only Cha Minh Soo has any relevance to the plot; the rest are nothing more than portraits. They could have been rolled into Cha Minh Soo's character and nothing would have changed.
* Kuja in ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' sells factory-built black mages to Alexandria for use as shock troops and walking artillery pieces. His motivation isn't necessarily profit though.
* Starting in ''[[Grand Theft Auto III]]'', a chain of stores called 'AmmuNation' acts as this. In 3, it tends to sell things that one would expect at a gun shop. Starting in ''[[Grand Theft Auto Vice City]]'', they sell more, and in San Andreas, the only things they don't sell are outright heavy weapons.
** In 3 and Vice City, a different guy sells heavy weapons, just in case you really need that RPG-7.
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*** There's also Little Jacob, who will sell you anything from the back of his car except for the really big guns.
** Although in ''[[Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars]]'', they come back with a mail order delivery service. This helps them get around the gun control laws.
* In ''[[Command
* [[
* ''[[Front Mission]]'': They don't sell guns, they sell [[Real Robot|Wanzers]] and [[King of the Hill|Wanzer Accessories]].
** Justified in 1, it's a place for the wanzer gladiators shopping for 'arms'.
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*** [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|In Singapore]]!
** [[My Friends and Zoidberg|And finally, ordering them from the Internet]], although that last one is implied to be illegal...
* ''[[Wild
* ''[[Far Cry]] 2'' is full of arms dealers. In addition to the Jackal and the player's armorer, there's quite a few other arms dealers who are the targets of various missions. Even some of the playable mercenaries are stated to have histories in gunrunning.
* How could we miss Nasri {{spoiler|and [[Big Bad|Leland]]}} from ''[[Alpha Protocol]]''?
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* You in ''[[Tropico]]'', turn the iron into weapons. However the US and Russia don't like third party arms dealers.
* ''[[Terraria]]'' allows you to build a town and recruit NPCs, two of which are the arms dealer who sells guns and ammo and the demolitionist who sells bombs.
* Los Angeles weapons dealers in ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]'' are situated in a more legitimate
* The Sikholon in ''[[I Miss the Sunrise]]'' are a mix of type 2 (they're the only known arms dealer in the galaxy) and type 3.
* ''[[Deus Ex]]'': Smuggler.
** ''[[2027]]'': Evgeny and Boris, along with an unseen dealer who sells only over the phone.
** ''[[The Nameless Mod]]'': Raving Nutter and Andreus.
* In ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution|Deus Ex Human Revolution]]'' you can buy guns from shady dealers who work from places like an abandoned gas station or back room of a brothel. For some reason despite of your status as chief of security to one of the most influential companies in the world you can't just have your employer commission the appropriate armaments for a mission. Amusingly, the aforementioned gas station dealer will keep on selling even when there's a riot going on a block away and there are police snipers stationed up on his roof.
* Recette, [[Player Character]] of ''[[Recettear:
* The Gun Runners company, appearing in ''[[Fallout]]'' and ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', live in a post-apocalyptic world where laws do not exist; hence, they are automatically legitimate gun factory/shop owners. They are notable in that they are the only (mentioned) source of factory fresh weapons available to buyers in the universe; the rest of the weapons you can buy is supposed to be salvaged from pre-war depots or tinkered together from rusty parts. The Enclave and the Brotherhood also manufacture weapons, but they aren't commercial organisations and keep their factory output to themselves.
* The ''[[Saints Row]]'' series has ''Friendly Fire'', serving much the same purpose as AmmuNation in GTA. There's also Phillipe Loren, head of [[The Syndicate]] in ''[[Saints Row: The Third|Saints Row the Third]]''; arms dealing is his legitimate business.
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* In most continuities of ''[[Transformers]]'', there will be a character named Swindle who is nominally a Decepticon but will happily sell anything to anyone provided they've got the scratch.
** And he's almost always an Intergalactic Arms Dealer only in buisness for himself.
* Although Lexcorp in ''[[Superman: The Animated Series|Superman the Animated Series]]'' nominally dealt in many industries, the side most often shown was its weapon development, making Lex Luthor the "corporate lobbyist" version of this trope.
* Minor ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003]]'' recurring character Ruffington is both the "corporate lobbyist" and "gangland gun runner", being a legitimate government contractor, and selling modified alien weaponry to street gangs such as the Purple Dragons.
* Jack Hench and Hench Co. in ''[[Kim Possible]]'' are a relatively kid-friendly depiction of this trope. Hench fits the "corporate lobbyist" type and treats the sale of hired muscle and gadgets to supervillains as "just business".
* Destro in nearly all incarnations of ''[[
== Real Life ==
* Basil Zaharoff, one-time Chairman of Vickers, who has appeared as an actual character or a [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] version in several works. Corporate Lobbyist type.
* The United States of America has been described as the world's biggest arms dealer. Russia takes second place (its exports are hugely down from the days of the USSR). The rest are the UK, France and mainland China. They all have permanent seats on the UN Security Council, with the ability to veto resolutions on arms trafficking.
** "The rest" meaning these countries unsurprisingly account for over 95% of all military equipment sold ''anywhere''.
** You forgot the third largest arms exporter: Germany. Yes, ''that'' Germany. Although it's probably better than [[World War II|the time they decided to keep them for themselves]] (the weapons, not the ammo; that, they shared freely).
*** German arms exporting is mostly by private industry not the German government.
* Arms exporting countries have dedicated junior ministers for this sort of thing. In the UK, Lord Drayson is the Minister of Defence Equipment and Support.
* The now famous Charlie Wilson was a U.S. congressman who used his own power - he was a member of the appropiations committee (money lenders) for black ops, as well as working with a number of CIA and Special Forces agents - to secure arms for Afghan Guerillas during the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
** Even more amazing is the CIA agent he worked with, Gust Avrokatos, and the guys Gust worked with. Gust once remarked of the immense balls of the Deputy Arms Minister of Egypt. Apparently, during a meeting with Gust for weapons to be sold to Israel with money from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia with the intention of Israel handing the weapons to Pakistan who would move them into Afghanistan (yeah), the Deputy Minister was also darting in and out of two other rooms that each smelled strongly of tobacco and hashish. Apparently the minister was making arms deals with the Iranians in the room on the left, Americans in the center room, and Iraqis on the right. This despite the fact that Iran and Iraq were at war, and Egypt's attitude towards America at the time was "we'll write insulting things with our right hands while you pass cash and guns to our left."
***In both the cases of Charlie and Gust that depends on how you define the term. They were [[La Résistance|underground quartermasters]], to be sure, but they were covered by the US government (and whatever other government was involved) and did not need to make a profit to pump their budget. They were dealing in arms so they were "arms-dealers" if you want to make a point but they were purchasers and smugglers not producers and not sellers.
***One of the problems in that operation was that for a long time the CIA was unwilling to introduce American ordinance because they wished to maintain [[Implausible Deniability|the pretense]] that America was not supplying the Afghans. That meant that while fungible cash could be gotten out of Congress, it had to be converted into hardware and transported by all sorts of convoluted and rather colorful means.
* Viktor Bout, a former Red (retired Russian GRU major) with a lot of military stuff for sale. He was supplying weapons to nearly everyone (except for people linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, or so he claims) for fifteen years, until he was arrested in Thailand last year. Nicknamed "The Merchant of Death". Also, the main character of ''Lord of War'', Yuri Orlov, was based on him.
* Norway allegedly has the world's largest export of weapons per capita. Notable because this is also the country with the Nobel Peace Price and a number of people trying to create peace in both the Middle East and South East Asia.
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** Remember, Alfred Nobel (who, in fairness, was Swedish <ref>He gave the peace part of his price to Norway, who was, at the time, <s>a part of</s> ''[[Insistent Terminology|in a union]]'' with Sweden, because he didn't trust the Swedes with such an important task.)</ref> was originally an arms dealer of the first rank. He invented dynamite, the first effective smokeless powder, and owned a major arms company. When his brother Ludvig died, somebody mistakenly thought it was him; Alfred saw a [[Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated|premature obituary]] in a French newspaper that read ''Le marchand de mort est mort'' ("The [[Merchant Of Death]] Is Dead"). Not wishing to be remembered as the [[Merchant Of Death]], he set up the Prizes.
*** However, it should be noted that while Nobel sought peace, he did not believe in disarmament treaties would be useful in achieving that goal. He was all for things like the League of Nations though.
* The [[wikipedia:Iran-Contra affair|Iran–Contra affair]] involved the highest levels of the U.S. government illegally trading arms for hostages. All Americans indicted or convicted were pardoned by [[George
* In recent history the ATF itself with Project Gun Runner and Operation Fast and Furious.
* The United State of America prior to its entry in the two World Wars used its neutrality and industrial capacity to make and sell arms for the wars in Europe. In both cases this was part of the motive for [[Awakening the Sleeping Giant|attacking the US and forcing their actual entry into the war]].
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Video Game Characters]]
[[Category:Villains]]
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