It seems to me that every grown male in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan packs a firearm. Is this a false impression?
Not entirely - In much of Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan there has been a tribal cottage industry in rifles and ammo ( pre-late '70’s mostly versions of the Lee-Enfield .303 ) for pretty much ever. Said industry was never under central government control in either country and contributed to the autonomous nature of the Pushtun tribal areas - There were open gun marts in Peshawar long before the Soviet entry into Afghanistan. However that war flooded millions of modern small arms into the same region and even more heavily militarized an already militarized society.
One could cite a similar situation, only more internalized, in Lebanon.
Iraq is more the result, I think, of Saddam’s arsenal dispersing widely among the populace. Though here again, many of the more tribal segments of Iraqi society have always been armed to at least some extent.
I am unaware of the actual nature of gun laws in the MENA, if they even exist. But for many countries in the region, especially those ( a significant number ) with significant tribal elements and even more particularly and recently those who have suffered tremendous internal upheaval like Afghanistan/northwest Pakistan, Lebanon, and Iraq, it is probably fair to say that they are either absent or lax and generally unenforceable.
- Tamerlane