History Main / ArmsDealer

* ''Literature/TheSpear'': [[spoiler:displaced Nazi]] Edward Gant is a renowned manufacturer and indiscriminate supplier of weapons.

* ''Manga/BlackLagoon'''s [[CorruptChurch "Rip-off Church"]], a catholic-flavour gun cartel running guns through the local church. It's strongly implied to be [[spoiler: a front for a CIA listening post]].

* Black Ghost from ''Manga/Cyborg009'' might just be the ur-example in anime and manga. They're an international consortium of arms dealers whose products range from conventional weapons like missiles and tanks to things like superpowered {{cyborg}} mercenaries. They're also a huge purveyor of WarForFunAndProfit, often [[PlayingBothSides manipulating both sides of armed conflicts]], as the more war that goes on the more money they make off of selling weapons.
* ''Manga/GunsmithCats'': 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.

* ''Literature/RebuildWorld'':
** Shizuka, the FriendlyShopkeeper of a hunter supply store, specializes in selling weapons and ammunition to hunters looking to head into the wasteland. She knows her product inside-and-out, giving lengthy explanations on the history and specifications of the weapons she sells in a manner veering into GunPorn.
** Katsuragi is a more dubious IntrepidMerchant and arms dealer who has no compunctions about forcing hunters into IndenturedServitude for example, or lying to Akira that certain items are worthless in the hopes of buying them cheap off him later.

* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'': Leonardo Hapoon's status as an arms dealer is his main source of income. It may also be why he is interested in starting a war between Ostania and Westalis. It's noted his clients include many of the rich and powerful in Ostania. The assassin Snoops believes he'd readily accept the deaths of these clients and friends if it could cause such a war.
* In ''Literature/TrappedInADatingSimTheWorldOfOtomeGamesIsToughForMobs'', Leon Bartfort, a minor feudal noble in a ScienceFantasy setting, takes advantage his Kingdom's laws guaranteeing loot rights for adventurers, to turn a crushed enemy fleet into his first products at a factory for CoolAirship on his small territory, with it mostly being staffed with his RobotBuddy Luxion's robots. With Leon being a PragmaticHero, he gives airships out to other minor nobles for free, who neglect to ReadTheFinePrint. In a case of BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord, Leon threatens to withhold repairs and maintenance of them if they don't fight under his flag, referring to this threat as ThePowerOfFriendship.
* In the ''Manga/WarcraftLegends'' manga, Nuri is a dwarf who makes many swords and sells them. He makes many rationalizations about his work, especially when one of his customers turns out to be the notorious orc Havoc. However, after his son is killed by Havoc, he has a HeelRealization, tracks down and disposes of all his weapons, [[spoiler:kills Havoc using the same worthless sword he gave his son, then commits suicide]].
* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Kaiba Corporation was a major producer of military arms under the leadership of [[AbusiveDad Gozaburo Kaiba]]. However, after Seto Kaiba took the company from him in a hostile takeover, he massively reformed it and turned it into a gaming company instead.

* The {{Elseworlds}} miniseries ''JSA: The Liberty Files'', featuring ComicBook/{{Batman}} and the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica, involves the Joker as an arms dealer selling weapons to the Nazis.

** Everett Ducklair was implied to manufacture weapons, and the second series shows that he sells "sonic weapons" (sound-based ''{{Disintegrator Ray}}s'') to the US Army. For obvious reasons, he has zero tolerance for any use of those weapons by unsanctioned users.
*** Even after Everett went back to his homeworld, the Ducklair Foundation continued to provide weapons for various states, as shown in the PKNE stories when they provided the NATO and other major powers with [[spoiler:guns that turn the Evronians back into spores]].

* ''ComicBook/Robin1993'': When Tim Drake tries tracing an influx of illegal guns in Bristol (just north of Gotham) he ends up discovering his skateboarding pal Star's boyfriend is selling guns out of the back of a van and Star and her boyfriend both end up shot during a deal gone bad.

* ''Literature/CallForTheDead'': During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, George Smiley spent four years travelling between Switzerland, Germany and Sweden as the agent of a Swiss small-arms manufacturer. Or at least that was his cover story - he was actually a British spy, and his connection to the arms company was carefully backdated for plausibility.
* Mr. Cheatio from Nikolay Nosov's ''Dunno on the Moon'', the last book of ''Literature/AdventuresOfDunno'' trilogy. The shop he owns is legitimate but he is perfectly willing to sell anything to anyone and his job being fully fine by standards of the society he lives in is meant to be sign of dystopia. Mr. Cheatio in general is far from virtuous, he is morally ambivalent ''at best''. For the most part of his arc he was a {{Nominal Hero}} but near the end of the book he became an enemy of the good guys and {{The Dragon}}( that's because siding with good guys no longer benefited him and also probably because he ''TookALevelInJerkass'' after being betrayed by his friend).

* Gerald Kersh's short story, ''[[Literature/ComradeDeath Comrade Death]]'', is about an arms dealer, Hector Sarek, who eventually controls the industry and specializes in horrifying chemical weapons. Sarek is also another fictional portrayal of Basil Zaharoff, see below in RealLife.
* Desiree Goth, the beautiful French LoveInterest of Dan Track, hero of the action-adventure novels by Jerry Ahern.

* The victim in the Literature/KateShugak novel ''Restless in the Grave'' is running a black market arms operation; stealing arms from US military bases and selling them to criminals and terrorists in Asia.
* ''Literature/MartinFierro'': Martin Fierro is an Argentinan Gaucho who is PressGanged into Conscripition to SettlingTheFrontier. At song III, Fierro denounces that the Colonel did not give firearms to the new recruits, pretexting he will give them when the Indians will attack them. When the Indians attack, the army gave the soldiers spears, because the firearms are useless without ammunition. Then a sergeant tells Fierro that the army really has ammunition, but they sell it to ThePioneer so they can hunt ostriches. The natural consequence is that the Indians are free to RapePillageAndBurn ThePioneer settlements.

* ''Literature/TheSpear'': Of weapons, [[spoiler:displaced Nazi]] Edward Gant is a renowned manufacturer and indiscriminate supplier.

* ''Literature/{{Technomancer}}'': Reynolds, the worst human alive, sells weapons to both demons as well as anti-demon forces throughout the apocalypse. [[spoiler:a.k.a. Salem's past self.]]

* '''Space Shooter Seller''': Characters or companies in sci-fi roleplaying games who will sell you weapons for your vessel.

* '''Gun Shop Owner''': Someone who owns a legitimate gun shop. These will usually refuse to sell to obvious criminals, but otherwise not ask questions. Some will decline to sell to those they see as "shady".

** In ''Jagged Alliance 2'', there's Bobby Ray's Guns and Things, an online website that ships weapons, armor, and all the other myriad tools of warfare across the globe. Their selection starts off relatively minimal, but increases as you progress. There's also Tony, who runs a gun store out of the back of a porn shop in San Mona.

** In ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' you can buy guns from shady dealers who work from places like an abandoned gas station or the 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. [[FridgeBrilliance Considering the rare ammo and other stuff he sells, they might even be his customers]]. There is also Seurat, who you can get a discount from if you save some people in the first mission.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In ''Manga/YuGiOh'', Kaiba Corporation was a major producer of military arms under the leadership of [[AbusiveDad Gozaburo Kaiba]]. However, after Seto Kaiba took the company from him in a hostile takeover, he massively reformed it and turned it into a gaming company instead.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive Lord Blackpool in ''ComicBook/LadyMechanika''.

* In ''Film/{{Dogma}}'' the same actor that played Randall in ''Film/{{Clerks}}'' plays a gun clerk who is very puzzled when the two angel antagonists are at his counter discussing the virtues of individual handguns and how they don't just invoke divine wrath like flaming swords used to.

* In ''Film/WarDogs'' two American hustlers find that they can break into the US military contracting in Iraq (in real life,to generate support for the war the Pentagon opened contract bids to small businesses.) They quickly get involved in more and more grandiose schemes, until it all collapses.

* Alexi Volkoff from ''{{Series/Chuck}}'' among other illegal activities.

* The Penguin in the ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'', to the point his men can sometimes be overheard complaining that he forces them to buy their guns from him. ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'' in particular focuses on this aspect of his character, as his sidequest involves locating and destroying his weapon caches throughout Gotham.

* In ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' you can buy guns from shady dealers who work from places like an abandoned gas station or the 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. [[FridgeBrilliance Considering the rare ammo and other stuff he sells, they might even be his customers.]]
** There is also Seurat, who you can get a discount from if you save some people in the first mission.
* In ''VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided'', there is a scene (shown in the demo at E3 2016) that features a man selling prosthetic arms to a group. That's right: a [[LiteralMetaphor literal]] arms dealer.

* ''VideoGame/FarCry2'' 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.
* ''Videogame/FarCry4'' has Longinus, a former African warlord turned preacher who is also an arms dealer for the local resistance movement.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'': The Merchant is a mysterious hooded arms dealer who for some reason shows up around the game to sell and upgrade weapons (as well as buy treasures). It's not explained what he's doing in a zombie-infested Spanish village but you're probably not going to ask that when you need firepower.
* ''Videogame/ResidentEvilVillage'': The Duke, like the above Merchant, is a merchant who sells weapons in some monster-infested European village.

* ''{{VideoGame/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. Later on, the Hardmode-exclusive Cyborg can appear, who specializes in rocket and mine-type weapons. Several NPC merchants will have a general inventory, but also sell a specific weapon, such as the Witch Doctor supplying the Blowgun or the Traveling Merchant offering the Katana or Revolver.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* Destro in nearly all incarnations of ''Franchise/GIJoe''.

* In most continuities of ''Franchise/{{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 Merchant only in business for himself.

** It seems that Rockstar missed the [=AmmuNation=] stores because they come back in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV''. You can now buy the heavy weapons such as the RPG, grenade launcher, and minigun from the store. Also, Trevor Philips, one of the protagonists of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', derives significant income from running guns from San Andreas down to Mexico. Since the Gunrunning update in Grand Theft Auto Online, your player character can become the Gangland Gunrunner type and manufacture and sell weapons as part of missions. Since January 2023, there is also the Gun Van, a black market arms dealer who spawns at a different location every day, and sellssome weapons at a discount, as well as variousweapons that aren't available at Ammu-Nation.

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' features in its backstory the Deadlock Gang, a group of Western-themed {{outlaws}} operating in the American Southwest who specialize in weapon and military hardware smuggling. A pair of playable characters have ties to them - [[DefectorFromDecadence Cassidy]] is an ex-member who disowned [[MeaningfulRename literally everything]] he had to do with them, whereas [[TheQueenpin Ashe]] is one of the cofounders and the group's current leader.

* 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, where arms were sent to fellow communist revolutionaries and any governments they wanted to sell/donate arms to, with famous early examples being the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar Second Spanish Republic]] and [[UsefulNotes/NoMoreEmperors Nationalist]] [[UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar China]]). The UK, France, and mainland China are all in the top six, and they all have permanent seats on the UN Security Council, with the ability to veto resolutions on arms trafficking. Rounding out the top six, the third-largest arms exporter is Germany. Although it's probably better than [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the time they decided to keep them for themselves]] (the weapons, not the ammo; that, they shared freely). To be fair, the German government doesn't (officially anyway) get terribly involved in hawking their weaponry; it's mostly the German arms manufacturers themselves (who benefit from the [[GermanicEfficiency general German reputation for high-quality manufactured goods]] as well as their own track record) who do the marketing.

* ''Videogame/JaggedAlliance'' all but requires gunrunners.

** In ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance2'', there's Bobby Ray's Guns and Things, an online website that ships weapons, armor, and all the other myriad tools of warfare across the globe. Their selection starts off relatively minimal, but increases as you progress. There's also Tony, who runs a gun store out of the back of a porn shop in San Mona.
** ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance3'' removes Bobby Ray's, but now allows you to purchase weapons and gear at marketplaces across Grand Chien. Given that the country is located in Africa, there's not much international scrutiny or care about arms sales.

* Although Lexcorp in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' nominally dealt in many industries, the side most often shown was its weapon development, making Lex Luthor the "corporate lobbyist" version of this trope.

* The villain of the ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' novel ''Silhouette'' by Justin Richards is a weapons dealer who specialises in {{Human Weapon}}s.

* ''Literature/JamesBond''

* ''Literature/TheSpear'': Of weapons, [[spoiler: displaced Nazi]] Edward Gant is a renowned manufacturer and indiscriminate supplier.

* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' novel ''Literature/HeirToTheJedi'' introduces the Chekkoo clan of Rodia. They sell high-end weapons, armor, and ship upgrades to their customers and are opposed to the Empire. Luke Skywalker's first mission in the novel is to set up an agreement between them and the Rebel Alliance.
* ''Literature/{{Technomancer}} by MK Gibson: Reynolds, the worst human alive, sells weapons to both demons as well as anti-demon forces throughout the apocalypse. [[spoiler: A.K.A Salem's past self.]]

* The {{Elseworlds}} miniseries ''JSA: The Liberty Files'', featuring Franchise/{{Batman}} and the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica, featured ComicBook/TheJoker as an arms dealer selling weapons to the Nazis.
* Creator/MarvelComics' ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero]]'', like other iterations of the modern ''Franchise/GIJoe'' franchise, introduced Destro early on as Cobra's main weapons supplier. However, Cobra Commander had [[LongGame long-term plans]] for Cobra to enter the market themselves, selling to various third-world regimes to help foment further instability.

** It seems that Rockstar missed the [=AmmuNation=] stores because they come back in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV''. You can now buy the heavy weapons such as the RPG, grenade launcher, and minigun from the store. Also, Trevor Philips, one of the protagonists of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', derives significant income from running guns from San Andreas down to Mexico. Since the Gunrunning update in Grand Theft Auto Online, your player character can become the Gangland Gunrunner type and manufacture and sell weapons as part of missions.

* '''Corporate Lobbyist''' who discuss weapon sales with governments and are out to make a large profit for themselves. Attempt to appear more respectable than the other types. Might do some other stuff on the side. Often appear at a legal ArmsFair.

* In ''Videogame/JaggedAlliance'' there's Bobby Ray's Guns and Things, an online website that ships weapons, armor, and all the other myriad tools of warfare across the globe. At the start of the game they can only provide basic necessities when the player takes control of an airfield to receive deliveries. As the game progresses their stock becomes progressively more advanced until your squad can purchase advanced next-gen weaponry and equipment.

[-[[caption-width-right:350:I sell to [[DirtyCommunist leftists]] and [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic rightists]], [[TheEmpire regimes]] and [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized rebellions]]... Heck, I'd sell to [[ActualPacifist pacifists]] if they weren't such lousy customers.]]-]

* In [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/325630/ ''Arms Dealer'']] you play as, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin an arms dealer]] and purchase firearms so you can sell them to nations demanding them for profits.

* ''Manga/BootyRoyaleNeverGoDownWithoutAFight'': Jeremy Friedman, the chief financial backer of the TournamentArc, is an American defense contracting billionaire. According to Mika, the JSDF buys a few hundred billion yen worth of weapons from his company Parthenon[[note]]a BlandNameProduct of Raytheon[[/note]] every year. He also prevails on the tournament organizers to let him test his AI division's fightng robot Sigrun as a surprise entrant to the tournament, [[DiabolusExMachina causing a significant disruption]].

* ''Manga/BootyRoyaleNeverGoDownWithoutAFight'': Jeremy Friedman, the chief financial backer of the TournamentArc, is an American defense contracting billionaire. According to Mika, the JSDF buys a few hundred billion yen worth of weapons from his company Parthenon[[note]]a BlandNameProduct of Raytheon[[/note]] every year.