The PSP Took In 265 Firearms and Nearly Six Thousand Rounds Over Two Months, and Non-Renewal Gives You 180 Days

The PSP spent two months this summer parking mobile units outside shops and community halls and asking people to hand over guns they no longer want. Between 29 June and 31 August, the third edition of the national operation "Armas em Segurança: Tour de Verão" collected 265 firearms and close to six thousand rounds and cartridges.

The scale of the effort was modest: 124 officers, 140 proximity policing, public counter and licensing actions, and 22 awareness sessions run from mobile units. The results were the best the operation has recorded.

Three summers of numbers

The comparison with earlier years is the useful part. In 2024, 103 officers ran 94 actions and took in 173 firearms and 1,523 rounds and cartridges. Last year, 343 officers ran 128 actions and collected 187 firearms and 2,730 rounds. This year, with fewer officers than in 2025, the operation brought in more of both: more guns than in either previous year, and more ammunition than the two earlier editions put together.

The PSP describes the purpose as bringing its weapons and explosives services closer to citizens, promoting knowledge of and compliance with the legal rules on holding, using and transferring firearms and ammunition. In practice the operation exists because a licence lapsing is the moment at which a lawfully held gun quietly becomes an unlawfully held one.

The rule the operation is built around

The PSP set out what happens when somebody holds a firearm and does not intend to renew the licence for it. The weapon must be deposited with the PSP or with a type 2 gun dealer. From that point the owner has 180 days to do one of four things: apply for the weapon to be covered by another licence they already hold, transfer it to somebody legally entitled to hold it, hand it over to the State, or request authorisation to deactivate it.

That 180-day window is the part most often missed. Guns are frequently inherited rather than bought, and an heir who does not shoot, and who has no licence, is holding a controlled item from the moment the estate passes. The deposit route exists precisely so that the six months are spent deciding rather than accumulating exposure.

What this means for expats

• Inherited weapons count: a firearm that arrives with a house or an estate is subject to the same rules as one you bought, and the clock starts when it becomes yours.
• Deposit is not confiscation: handing a weapon in to the PSP or a type 2 dealer preserves your options for 180 days, including transferring it to a licensed person.
• Know which licence you would need: our guide to owning a firearm in Portugal in 2026 sets out the Lei 5/2006 licence classes, the PSP exam and the safe requirement.
• Hunting is the common route: most licensed holders in Portugal are hunters, and our hunting season guide explains where and when shooting is lawful.
• The medical has moved: firearms medicals now run through dedicated centres rather than family doctors.
• The alternative is worse: unlicensed stockpiles surface in other proceedings, as when the GNR removed 30 firearms and 2,803 rounds from a Paredes home on a domestic-violence warrant.