Owning a Firearm in Portugal in 2026: A Practical Guide to the Lei 5/2006 Licence Classes, the Medical Certificate and PSP Exam, the Four-Gun Ceiling on a B Licence, the Safe You Must Buy First, and the 90 Days You Get on an Inherited Shotgun

Portugal is not a country where you buy a gun. It is a country where you apply for permission to be the kind of person who may own one, wait, sit an exam, buy an approved safe before you buy the weapon, and then renew the whole arrangement every five years. The statute that arranges all of this is Lei n.º 5/2006, de 23 de fevereiro, the Regime Jurídico das Armas e Suas Munições (Legal Regime for Weapons and Their Ammunition), usually shortened to RJAM. It has been amended seven times, most recently by Lei n.º 50/2019, de 24 de julho, and the 2019 rewrite is the one that produced most of the rules below.

This guide is written for people living in Portugal who are thinking about the hunting route, the sport-shooting route, or the personal-defence route, and for people who have unexpectedly inherited a shotgun and need to know what the law expects of them in the next ninety days. It is a guide to the licensing system, not legal advice on any particular application. The licensing authority throughout is the Polícia de Segurança Pública (Public Security Police, PSP), and specifically its national director, who signs the licences and the acquisition authorisations.

The classes come first, then the licences

The RJAM sorts weapons into classes A through G in Article 3, and then sorts licences into types in Article 12. The two lists are not the same thing, and the difference is where most confusion starts.

Class A is the prohibited category. Class B and B1 are the short and defensive firearms. Class C and D are the hunting arms, broadly rifled and smoothbore long guns. Class E covers electric weapons, defence aerosols and extendable batons within the permitted specifications. Class F covers replicas, martial-arts weapons and historical-reconstruction arms. Class G covers veterinary arms, line-throwers, signalling arms and recreational firearm reproductions.

Article 12 then lists the licences the PSP national director can grant, keyed to the classes and to the purpose for which you say you need them:

• Licence B, for the use and carrying of weapons of classes B, B1, C, D, E and F.
• Licence B1, for classes B1 and E.
• Licence C, for classes C, D and E.
• Licence D, for classes D and E.
• Licence E, for class E.
• Licence F, for the holding, use and carrying of class F.
• Special licence, for classes B, B1, C, D, E and F, under Article 19.

A licence for a higher class carries the lower ones with it. A licence C holder can hold class C, D and E weapons on that one document. Article 12(5) also lets holders of licences C or D use firearm replicas for hunting, and Article 12(6) exempts holders of licences D, B1 and B who hold a federation licence from needing a separate sporting licence for that class.

Licence B is effectively closed, and that surprises people

Newcomers often assume licence B is the "top" licence you work up to. It is not available on merit. Article 13(1) provides that, save special provision, licence B is granted to an applicant who proves they exercised, for at least four years, an activity that gave them the right to use and carry a class B weapon. It is a retirement licence: it exists so that police officers, magistrates, and others who carried a class B weapon in the course of their duties can keep doing so after the duty ends.

Article 5(2) sets out who has the right to acquire, hold, use and carry class B weapons by virtue of office, and it is a list of institutional positions: the President of the Republic, the President of the Assembleia da República, members of parliament, members of the European Parliament, members of the Government, the Representatives of the Republic, regional deputies and regional government members, members of the Council of State, judicial magistrates, magistrates of the Ministério Público, and the Provedor de Justiça (Ombudsman).

Article 13(3) also blocks licence B where the underlying right ended through a disciplinary dismissal, compulsory retirement, or retirement for psychological or physical incapacity that prevents the use of a weapon, or where the applicant has been convicted of any crime under Chapters I to V of Title I of Book II of the Penal Code, which is the block covering crimes against persons. Article 13(4) gives the PSP a maximum of 90 days to issue the licence.

For an ordinary resident, in other words, licence B is not the door. B1 is.

The five requirements that apply to almost every licence

Articles 14 to 17 set out the conditions for licences B1, C, D, E and F, and they are cumulative. In every case the applicant must be over 18 and must:

1. Be in full possession of civil rights.
2. Demonstrate that they need the licence. The wording differs by licence, and the difference matters. For B1, Article 14(1)(b) requires the applicant to show they need the licence for professional reasons or by reason of circumstances of personal defence or defence of property. For C and D, Article 15(1)(b) requires the applicant to show they need it to hunt and to hold a carta de caçador (hunter's licence), or to show a substantiated professional need. For E and F, the applicant must justify the need, and for F specifically that means federated martial-arts practice, recreational practice on private property, collecting replicas, or historical reconstruction.
3. Be idóneo. This is the fitness or good-character test, and it has real content. Under Article 14(2), what can indicate a lack of fitness includes, among other duly substantiated reasons, having had a security measure applied, or having been convicted of an intentional crime committed with violence and sentenced to more than one year in prison.
4. Hold a medical certificate under Article 23.
5. Pass a technical and civic training course for the use and carrying of firearms. This requirement applies to B1, C and D. It does not apply to licences E and F, which have no course requirement in Articles 16 and 17.

There is a route back for people caught by the fitness test. Article 14(3) allows an applicant, during the period before their criminal record entry is definitively cancelled, to ask the court of last conviction to recognise their fitness for the purpose. Article 14(4) provides that this judicial step does not suspend the administrative procedure, and Article 14(5) requires the judge to hear the applicant and to decide after taking evidence and hearing the Ministério Público.

The medical certificate

Article 23 defines what the examination is for. It covers both physical and psychological fitness, and it certifies whether the applicant is fit, or fit with restrictions, to hold, use and carry a weapon, and whether they are in possession of all their mental faculties, with no clinical history suggesting they might come to harm themselves or others. Where fitness comes with restrictions, those restrictions must be stated on the certificate.

Holders of licences B, B1, C, D, E, F and special licences must submit the examination with the licence application. From the age of 70 onwards, Article 23(4) requires the certificate to be presented every two years, not every five.

Since the 2019 amendment, Article 20-A(4) provides that the medical certificate is issued electronically, under terms to be set by joint order of the interior and health ministries. In August 2026 the government also moved to create dedicated centres for driving, hunting and firearms medicals, taking the work off family doctors.

The course and the exam

Article 21 puts the technical and civic training courses for classes B1, C and D in the hands of bodies recognised by joint order of the interior and agriculture ministries. Where no recognised body in a district has the capacity, the PSP runs the course itself.

Passing the course gets you a certificate specifying the class of weapon it covers, and Article 21(2) makes that certificate valid for five years, during which you may sit the aptitude exam. That five-year window is generous and worth knowing about: the course and the exam do not have to happen in the same season.

Article 25 provides that the aptitude exams follow the courses, are held at a date and place fixed by the PSP, and comprise a theoretical and a practical test.

Hunters get a combined procedure. Article 21(3) provides for a single training and examination procedure to obtain the carta de caçador and the firearms licence for hunting at the same time. The training under that route is the responsibility of first-level hunting-sector organisations recognised by the interior and agriculture ministries, and Article 21(5) makes the exam the exclusive competence of the PSP and the Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas (Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests, ICNF). If hunting is your reason for applying, our guide to the Portuguese hunting season covers the zones, days and distances that govern where you may actually use the weapon.

You must own the safe before you may buy the gun

This is the requirement that catches people out most often, because it inverts the order they expect.

Article 32(4) provides that, regardless of licence type, holders of a firearm are obliged to possess, for its safekeeping, a non-portable safe or security cabinet, with a minimum security level in accordance with European standard EN 14450 - S1 or an equivalent security level. Compliance is proved by producing the invoice or equivalent document, or, failing that, by a sworn declaration from the owner including photographs of the safe and details of its installation.

Article 30 then makes the safe a condition of the purchase authorisation itself. The autorização de aquisição is the PSP document that permits you to acquire a weapon of the class it names. The application must contain your full identification, your licence number and type, the make, model, type and calibre of the weapon, and, under Article 30(2)(d), a sworn declaration that you possess in your home or premises a non-portable safe or security cabinet, or a strongroom, together with a statement as to whether there are minors in the home. Sub-paragraph (e) requires you to authorise the PSP to inspect the security conditions in which the weapons will be kept, after notification.

Article 30(3) provides that the PSP's verification of security conditions always takes account of whether there are minors in the applicant's home, and that the acquisition authorisation may be made conditional on changes being made. Article 30(4) gives the authorisation a validity of 60 days.

Article 43 covers what happens at home once the weapon is there. A holder who separates physically from the firearm must place it inside a non-portable safe or security cabinet where one is required under Article 32. In cases not covered by that, the holder must remove a part without which the weapon cannot fire and store it separately, or fit a padlock or other mechanism preventing use, or fix the weapon to a wall or other fixed object so that it cannot be used. A strongroom or fortified room may replace the safe.

How many you may own

Article 32 caps holdings by licence type, and the ceilings are low by international standards for defensive licences and high for hunting ones.

Acquisition of class B, B1 and C weapons requires prior authorisation from the PSP national director in every case, under Articles 5(1), 6(1) and 7(1). Class D weapons are acquired by declaration of sale, donation or inheritance under Article 8(1) without that prior authorisation step, though the licence requirement still applies.

Carrying, transporting and the alcohol limit

Article 41 separates carrying from transporting, and the rules are different.

Short firearms being carried must be in a holster or case designed for the purpose, fitted with a safety device, with no round in the chamber, revolvers excepted. They may be within the carrier's reach.

Firearms being transported must be in a bag or case suited to the model, separated from their ammunition, and either fitted with a trigger lock or a mechanism preventing use, or dismantled so as not to be readily usable, or missing a part without which they cannot fire, that part being carried separately. Extendable batons, electric weapons and aerosols must likewise be carried or transported in a suitable bag or case in adequate safety conditions. Carrying any of these in the restricted security zones of airports or aboard an aircraft requires authorisation from the competent authority. Article 41(6) extends the same rules to recreational firearm reproductions and air weapons.

Article 45 sets an alcohol limit that is stricter than the driving one and works differently. It prohibits holding, using or carrying a weapon, or transporting it outside the safety conditions of Article 41, under the influence of alcohol or narcotic or psychotropic substances. Being under the effect of alcohol means a blood alcohol level equal to or above 0.50 grams per litre. A police officer may order the carrier to submit to detection tests, and refusing is the crime of qualified disobedience. Article 45(4) defines "holding" for this purpose as the weapon being within the immediate availability of the holder, assembled, loaded and ready to fire.

Five years, and never for life

Article 27(2) states the principle in one line: in no case are lifetime licences granted.

Licences for classes B, B1, C and D, and the special licence, are valid for five years. Licences for classes E and F are also valid for five years. Home-detention licences run for ten years. On renewal, second issue, or the grant of a more recent title covering the previous licence, the old document must be handed in to the PSP within 30 days of receiving the new one, and the holder gets a substitution slip valid until the new title arrives.

Article 28 governs renewal. It must be requested before the licence expires, and it depends on the requirements for the original grant being met at the date of the request. The training-course requirement is replaced by proof of attendance at the corresponding refresher course under Article 22 where that is required. Article 28(3) obliges the PSP, in the 90 days before expiry, to notify the holder that the licence is running out and to warn them of the administrative-offence liability attached to missing the renewal deadline.

Article 28(4) contains a small saving worth using. A holder of more than one licence may, when renewing one of them, request renewal of the others at the same time, aligning the expiry dates, submitting the documents once, and paying only the highest of the applicable renewal fees.

Inherited weapons: you have 90 days

Article 37 covers acquisition by inheritance, and it is the provision most readers of this guide are likely to need first.

Acquiring any registered weapon by succession is permitted with the authorisation of the PSP national director. The existence of the weapons must be declared to the PSP within 90 days of the previous owner's death, or of their discovery by whoever is holding them.

The PSP national director may authorise the weapon to be registered in the name of the cabeça de casal, the head of the estate, until the estate is divided, in which case depositing the weapon with the PSP is compulsory. If the head of the estate or another heir meets the legal conditions for holding it, they can ask for it to be registered in their own name and keep it. At the request of the head of the estate, the weapon may be transferred to someone who does meet those conditions. Once the estate is divided, the weapon goes to the beneficiary heir, provided they qualify. If ten years pass without the weapon being claimed, it is declared forfeit to the State.

There is also a middle path that does not involve the police station. Article 40-A, added in 2019, allows owners of weapons, whether or not they hold a licence, to deposit them with a type 2 armeiro, a licensed dealer. Withdrawal is by the owner or heir once licensed, or where an authorisation for transmission, export, transfer, deactivation, donation to a museum or surrender to the State has been issued. That is often the practical answer for a family that has inherited a shotgun nobody in it wants to license.

What it costs

Fees are set by portaria under Article 83, and the operative instrument is the Regulamento de Taxas annexed to Portaria n.º 934/2006, as amended by Portarias 256/2007, 224/2017 and 237/2021. Article 18 of that Regulation updates the amounts annually by the consumer price index, so the figures move each year. The table below is the PSP schedule that took effect on 1 March 2024, which is the most recent one the PSP has published as a full annex.

Two further rules change what you actually pay. Article 17 of the Regulation requires 50 percent of the fee to be paid up front when the application is filed. That advance is non-refundable and independent of whether the application succeeds, because it is meant to cover the cost of organising the administrative file. If the application is granted, the advance counts towards the final amount.

Article 19(2) halves the fees for holders of licences for hunting weapons who are aged 28 or under, as an incentive to hunting. Article 19(1) halves them for sporting federations, holders of sport-shooting licences for Olympic disciplines, and weapons destined for museum display. Second copies of licences and authorisations cost 50 percent of the original act, except for registration booklets and record books, which cost the same as first issue.

None of that includes the safe, the medical certificate, the course itself, or the compulsory civil liability insurance required by Article 77, all of which are paid to private parties rather than to the PSP.

What happens if you get it wrong

Article 86 makes unauthorised possession a crime, and it grades it by what the weapon is.

Holding, transporting, buying, acquiring, keeping or carrying a weapon of classes B, B1, C or D without authorisation, outside the legal conditions or contrary to the prescriptions of the competent authority, is punished under Article 86(1)(c) with one to five years in prison or a fine of up to 600 days. The same sub-paragraph covers a shotgun or rifle easily dismantled into small components for concealment, an unmodified smoothbore shotgun with a barrel under 46 cm, a firearm disguised as another object, a firearm manufactured without authorisation, and a transformed or modified firearm.

Article 86(1)(a) raises the range to two to eight years for military goods and technologies, biological, chemical, radioactive or nuclear-capable weapons, automatic firearms, weapons configured for military or security-force use, and civil explosives and improvised explosive devices.

Article 86(1)(d) reaches down into the everyday: bladed weapons disguised as other objects, automatic-opening and flick knives, stilettos, butterfly knives, throwing knives, cardsharps, throwing stars, knuckledusters, other bladed weapons or devices with no defined application that could be used as weapons of aggression where the carrier cannot justify possessing them, defence aerosols outside the permitted specification, gas-launching weapons, batons, extendable batons, electric batons and electric weapons outside the permitted specification. The penalty is up to four years in prison or a fine of up to 480 days. This is the provision that makes carrying a pepper spray bought abroad a criminal matter in Portugal, a point our guide to self-defence in Portugal deals with in more detail.

Article 86(1)(e) covers silencers, non-homologated sound moderators or those reducing sound by more than 50 dB, muzzle brakes and essential components.

The short version

If you want to hunt, the route is licence C or D, through the combined carta de caçador procedure, with a course from a recognised hunting organisation and an exam run jointly by the PSP and the ICNF. If you want a firearm for personal or property defence, the route is licence B1, with two weapons maximum, and the burden is on you to demonstrate the circumstances that justify it. If you want to shoot competitively or practise martial arts, the route is licence F or a federation licence. Licence B is a legacy licence for people who already carried a class B weapon professionally for four years.

In every case you need to be 18, in full civil rights, of good character in the specific sense Article 14(2) gives that phrase, medically certified, and, for the licences that require it, trained and examined. You need a non-portable EN 14450 - S1 safe before the PSP will authorise a purchase, and you should expect the PSP to come and look at it. The licence lasts five years and never longer. If you inherit a weapon, the clock is 90 days, and depositing it with a licensed dealer is a lawful way out.

Portugal's regulatory habit of licensing outdoor activity one statute at a time runs well beyond firearms. We have covered the equivalent regimes for fishing rivers and reservoirs, metal detecting, and cutting down a tree on your own land. The pattern is consistent: the activity is lawful, the permission is specific, and the penalty for skipping the permission is disproportionate to how easy the permission would have been to get.