Spain

The “Firearms Association” is directly related to the second most practised sport in Spain, that is, hunting, which is only exceeded in number by fishing as far as regards the number of licensed practitioners is concerned. Our country, which has 1.4 million hunters, ranks second in Europe regarding the number of people who enjoy hunting, and France tops the list.

The “Firearms Association” shares with hunting and sport shooting practitioners their commitment to the defense of environmental values and natural environment protection.

The large number of people that move around every year from the very moment the hunting season is opened, and the great activity resulting from the work carried out by more than 6,000 hunting clubs and associations spread all over the national territory, are a clear evidence of the sound health condition of this sector which, on top of this, is accountable for a large sales volume and high lodging occupancy rates.

More than 15,000 permanent jobs and, approximately two million casual jobs (e.g. gunsmiths, dog breeders, manufacturers and sellers of clothing articles, footwear and vehicles, hotel and catering trade, forest rangers, etc.) are created by the practice of hunting and fishing in our country.

The “Firearms Association” helps to achieve these figures by billing an annual amount in the region of € 238,000,000, by its induced billing amounting to € 170,000,000 and by creating regular direct employment for 3,000 people, but apart from this one should take into account the percentage of casual jobs that varies depending on the non-hunting season dates, which is actually difficult to estimate.

Europe

In Europe, the hunting and sport shooting market generates € 18,000,000 and creates more than 580,000 jobs per year.

Hunting and sport shooting-related activities are an important socio-economic sector where  many thousands of small and medium-sized companies are involved. Only in Europe, there are more than 10 million users engaged in hunting and sport shooting, sport people and hunters that are extremely responsible and compliant with the applicable regulations.

In Europe there is a deeply-rooted culture on the possession and lawful use of sport arms, a culture which has guaranteed that, in spite of the large number of European users, in Europe there are almost no incidents where sport arms are involved.

The above mentioned economic figures do not take into account the “multiplying effect” of this economic activity. Should that effect have been considered, then the aggregate impact on the economy of hunting and sport shooting-related activities would amount to € 40,000,000 per year.

In Europe there are more than 1800 manufacturers, 200 wholesale distributors and 14,000 retailers whose business depends, either totally or to a great extent, on hunting and sport shooting.