Action on Armed Violence

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Action on Armed Violence seeks to reduce the impact of armed violence through monitoring and research of the causes and consequences of weapon-based violence. We have a specific focus on the impact of explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas and have been running a global monitor of explosive violence since October 2010. In addition to monitoring harm, we have investigated numerous case studies of explosive weapon harm, including the long-term harm from explosive weapons in Sri Lanka, Lebanon and Syria, air strikes by NATO forces, improvised explosive device attacks by jihadist terrorists and the wide area harm of explosive weapons in Ukraine, Jordan and Israel, amongst others. Our work is disseminated at international forums, such as the UN and we have presented evidence of explosive violence harm to the UK parliament and to numerous think tank and public debates. Our work is widely cited in the media and we are a regular commentator on armed violence internationally. For more information, please contact Iain Overton - ioverton@aoav.org.uk Source

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Scope International
Language English
Country United Kingdom
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Hollywood and its guns: the questions behind aestheticised violence - AOAV

| Action on Armed Violence
The presence and stylised representation of guns in Hollywood is a phenomenon witnessed as early as the 1900s. From Porter's 1903 Great Train Robbery ending with a straight gun shot at the camera, to Stallone's 1986 Cobra gun-into-camera introduction, guns have long been not only present but central to characters' identity construction (Lapierre and Sada Garibay 2025, p. 1; Mattes 2013, p.
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Six in 10 Russian billionaires are still not being sanctioned by the UK Government - AOAV

| Action on Armed Violence
Some 61% of Russia's billionaires remain untouched by the UK's sanctions regime, including at least four with documented links to Britain through property, business interests and family connections. The findings raise fresh questions about whether Britain's sanctions policy is matching repeated Government promises to target the Russian elite and the financial networks supporting Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.
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Open Letter to the Prime Minister on military spending and the next NATO Summit - AOAV

| Action on Armed Violence
Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer Prime Minister 10 Downing Street London SW1A 2AA 01 July 2026 Dear Prime Minister, As you prepare to stand down as Prime Minister, having released a Defence Investment Plan which found another £15bn for the military, you will be readying yourself to attend the NATO Summit in Ankara. At this time, we wish to outline our grave concerns about the increasing focus of resources on the military over other forms of international engagement.
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Private British defence firms win most MoD contracts. Yet their CEO pay stays stubbornly hidden - AOAV

| Action on Armed Violence
The second article in AOAV's four-part investigation into defence company executive pay examines Britain's largest private limited defence companies. While the first report found that chief executives of listed defence firms received average annual remuneration of £5.2 million in 2024, this investigation asks a different question: how much do the executives of privately held defence companies receive? The answer is that, in many cases, nobody outside the companies knows.
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Defence company chiefs pocketed 138 times the average UK worker's wage in 2024, with their average CEO annual pay increasing by £1.5 million in the last decade - AOAV

| Action on Armed Violence
As the UK government announces a further £15bn for defence and pledges to raise military spending to £80bn a year by 2029, new analysis by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) reveals that the average chief executive of Britain's five largest defence companies received £5.2m in remuneration in 2024, more than 138 times the annual earnings of the median full-time UK worker.
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London's 2025 murders examined: key figures in the UK capital's homicides - AOAV

| Action on Armed Violence
White homicide victims have also seen an increase in 2025, with Black and White victims being equivalently high, each accounting for 41% of homicides. However, the homicide victims who were White were disproportionately elderly (65 plus), whilst Black victims tended to be aged 25-34. Elderly homicides have risen by 25% from 2024 to 2025 and 21% of overall London homicide victims were 65 and over. 85% of these elderly victims were White.
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Tackling online and influencer glamorisation of gun violence: a UK and European perspective - AOAV

| Action on Armed Violence
1. Abstract Gun violence remains a significant public health challenge. The manifestation of gun violence in the United Kingdom and the European Union is significantly different from jurisdictions such as the United States due to stricter firearms regulations and lower rates of gun ownership. However, the increasing influence of digital platforms, online communities and influencers has created new pathways through which the use of firearms and related harmful ideologies are glamorised.
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New poll exposes political fault lines over UK's nuclear deterrent with Reform voters five times more likely than Greens to back nuclear retaliation - AOAV

| Action on Armed Violence
Reform UK supporters are five times more likely than Green voters to back a nuclear retaliation even if Britain had been destroyed in a nuclear attack, according to new YouGov polling that highlights deep political divisions over the UK's nuclear deterrent and the civilian consequences of its use. The YouGov survey of 8,029 adults asked respondents what instructions they would leave for commanders of Britain's nuclear submarines through the Prime Minister's secret "letters of last resort".
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RAF Waddington images show Chinese-made drone technology being tested - AOAV

| Action on Armed Violence
Images published by RAF Waddington have prompted questions about the role Chinese-made drone technology continues to play in military training and technology assessment, despite government assurances that the Ministry of Defence does not operate Chinese-manufactured drones. Photographs shared on the station's Facebook and Instagram accounts on 17 June show personnel attending a live drone demonstration as part of a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) event.
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Reverberating impacts in Ukraine - AOAV

| Action on Armed Violence
AOAV examines the reverberating impacts from the use of explosive weapons in Ukraine.
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Action on Armed Violence Journalists

Dathan, Jennifer
Gillen, Niamh
Overton, Iain