Proliferation of conventional arms contribute to human rights violations, breaches of international humanitarian law, to intensifying and prolonging armed conflicts, and to threaten national and regional stability. Ammunition, as integral to the use of conventional weapons, has to be included in a future ATT if the instrument is to respond to these fundamental concerns. A majority of states express a preference for the inclusion of small arms ammunition in an ATT. This view is supported by a wide range of international instruments that address transfer of arms and that include small arms ammunition, such as the legally binding UN Firearms Protocol, the Wassenaar Arrangement, and a range of legally and politically binding regional instruments. This vast body of existing international regulations provides a strong and very useful precedence for the inclusion of small arms ammunition in the ATT. Additionally, the transport of ammunition is subjected to stricter and more comprehensive national and international controls than other weapons and military goods.

Most small arms rounds used for hunting and sports shooting are originally developed for military purposes. Small arms ammunition produced for civilian and state usage is therefore quite similar. All small arms ammunition is thus in general regulated as strategic goods through national export controls. It is therefore necessary and unproblematic to include ammunition produced for both purposes in an ATT.