Apply for a small firearms license

If you use alarm shot, irritant and signal weapons with PTB approval marks in a circle (so-called SRS weapons) outside

• your own apartment,
• the company's own business premises or
• of one's own pacified property (e.g. one's own garden)

If you want to carry a small firearms license for this purpose, you will need a small firearms license. However, carrying an SRS weapon is generally prohibited at public events.

For compressed air, spring-loaded guns and CO₂ guns marked with an "F" sign, the small firearms licence is not valid.

It is recommended that you inform yourself in detail about the regulations of the weapons law before applying.

If you carry an SRS weapon with you, you must have the small firearms license with you and be able to identify yourself with an identity card or passport.

The small firearms license is valid indefinitely.

You may be denied the small firearms license if you have not lived in Germany within the last 5 years.

If you move to another city or municipality, you do not have to have the small firearms license rewritten.

If you handle weapons and ammunition without a required weapons permit, you may be fined or imprisoned.

If [HM1] you have a small firearms license, you may use permit-free weapons, such as alarm shot, irritant and signal weapons with approval marks of the PTB in a circle, outside

• your own apartment,
• the company's own business premises,
• of one's own pacified property (e.g. garden) or
• a shooting range

Wear concealed. However, they are not allowed to carry these weapons at public events.

A distinction is made between firearms that require a permit and firearms that do not require a permit. Firearms that do not require a permit include:

• firearms that fire cartridge ammunition (alarm firearms),
• firearms that fire irritants or other active substances (irritant weapons),
• Firearms that fire pyrotechnic ammunition (signal weapons).

You can recognize license-free weapons by the approval mark "PTB" in the circle. All weapons that are not alarm shot, irritant and signal weapons with PTB marks in a circle are counted as subject to authorisation. A detailed list of weapons for the purchase and possession of which you need a weapons possession card (WBK) can be found in Annex 2 of the Weapons Act. However, you also need a firearms license if you want to carry compressed air, spring-loaded guns and CO2 guns with less than 7.5 joules marked with an "F" sign in public. The use of these weapons on fenced territory, for example for paintball activities, does not require a permit.

In general, firearms are objects intended for attack or defence, signalling, hunting, distance injection, marking, sport or play and in which projectiles are driven through a barrel or in which solid bodies are fired in a targeted manner, the propulsive energy of which can be introduced by muscle power or another source of energy and stored or held by a locking device (e.g. crossbows, arrow launchers).

It is recommended that you inform yourself in detail about the regulations of the weapons law before applying.

In order to obtain the small firearms license, you must

• be at least 18 years old,
• Your reliability in terms of weapons law,
• Your personal suitability as well as
• prove the safe storage of weapons and ammunition.

Reliability under weapons law

Among other things, you can be assessed as reliable in terms of weapons law,

1. if you have not been sentenced to imprisonment of at least 1 year within the last 10 years and have not been a member of or supported a banned organization in the last 10 years.
2. if it cannot be assumed that you are misusing or improperly handling weapons or ammunition, keep these items carefully or leave them to persons who are not authorized to do so.
3. if you have not been in preventive police custody more than once in the last 5 years with judicial authorization for violent acts.
4. if you have not repeatedly or grossly violated the gun law.

Personal suitability

Among other things, you may be assessed as personally unsuitable if:

1. You are legally incapacitated.
2. You are addicted to alcohol or other intoxicating substances, mentally ill or debilitated.
3. You suffer from serious illnesses, such as brain injuries, or physical impairments, such as amputations or severe visual impairments.
4. it can be assumed that you are unable to handle weapons or ammunition carefully or properly or that you are unable to store these items carefully or that there is a concrete risk that you will endanger others or yourself.

The small firearms license is indefinite.

If you carry a weapon without a permit, you must be able to identify yourself with an identity card or passport as well as the small firearms license.

You may be denied the small firearms license if you have not lived in Germany within the last 5 years.

If you move to another city or municipality, you do not have to have the small firearms license rewritten.

If you handle weapons and ammunition without permission, you may be fined or imprisoned.