In recent years firearms have become the weapons most frequently used by terrorists in Europe. Previous studies have demonstrated that most terrorists did not legally obtain their firearms, but acquired them on the illicit gun market. This observation has boosted policy attention on efforts to combat illicit firearms trafficking in Europe, both at EU level and the level of Member States. Yet, despite this increased policy attention, there is currently still a lack of in-depth comparative research on illicit firearms trafficking in Europe in general, and on the networks used by terrorists to acquire firearms in particular. The European Commission’s DG Migration and Home Affairs has commissioned several research projects on illicit firearms trafficking and gun crime in recent years in order to improve knowledge and contribute to EU policy initiatives. Hitherto, these commissioned studies have mainly focused on improving the collection and analysis of quantitative data on arms seizures.
In this paper we will discuss the qualitative research methodology and the process used in Project SAFTE (“Studying the Acquisition of illicit Firearms by Terrorists in Europe”). This is a new research project that started in January 2017 and is being conducted by an international network of firearms experts. Project SAFTE analyses the characteristics of illicit firearms markets in eight selected Member States with a special focus on the ways terrorists can access these markets. The results of the different in-depth country studies will be systematically analyzed in a comparative manner and then related to the development EU policy. This analysis will then serve as the basis for best practices and recommendations for EU policy, and that of Member States and third countries.
By explicitly using a qualitative research methodology and a comparative analysis of case studies, Project SAFTE has the aim of complementing the existing (more quantitatively focused) studies, improving our knowledge on illicit gun markets and contributing to the development of better evidence-based policy initiatives. An analysis of the methodology used in this project can thus benefit a more general discussion on suitable research methodologies for researching illicit firearms trafficking in Europe and attempts to control it.
