PLEASE NOTE: In addition to territorial laws, the purchase, sale and (in certain circumstances) the possession and interstate transportation of firearms is regulated by the Gun Control Act of 1968 as amended by the Firearms Owners' Protection Act. Also, cities and localities may have their own firearms ordinances in addition to federal and territory laws. Details may be obtained by contacting local law enforcement authorities, and by consulting the State Laws and Published Ordinances - Firearms, available from the U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.
The National Rifle Association does not publish a summary-of-laws brochure dealing specifically with the laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. We have included below the law text of the section dealing with Puerto Rico's firearm laws as found in the Firearms State Laws and Published Ordinances, 1994 edition, distributed by the Department of the Treasury, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, as a service to NRA members and other users of the NRA's computer services. The NRA takes no responsibility as to the completeness of the information below; please see the cautionary statement at the end of this file.
Puerto Rico Commonwealth Law
Laws of PR Ann.
Controlled Substances Act of Puerto Rico
Title 24; Chapter 111
2516. ***carrying firearms.
No person who has been convicted of a felony under this chapter
or of any law of the United States or of any state in connection
with narcotic drugs, marijuana, depressant or stimulant
substances as well as of any foreign country and any person who
has been declared addicted to narcotic drugs, may obtain a
license from the corresponding authority to *** hold, possess or
carry firearms for a term if five years from and after the
serving of the sentence imposed by said conviction or after the
date of the declaration. Officers or public employees in charge
of the issuance said licenses shall be prevent from extending
them, whenever any of the circumstances expressed above may
concur in the applicant for the license and any such licenses
which have been issued prior to the conviction or declaration
that the person is addicted to narcotic drugs shall immediately
be cancelled by the corresponding authority.***
Title 25; Chapter 51. Weapons
411. Regulations of weapons - Short title.
This chapter shall be known as the "Weapons Law of Puerto
Rico".
412. Manufacture and distribution of weapons and ammunition.
Ammunition shall not be manufactured, caused to be
manufactured, or imported, offered, sold, lent or transferred
unless a license is held therefor under sections 411-454 of this
title; neither shall any gun, revolver, pistol or any firearm ***
shall be manufactured or caused to be manufactured, imported,
offered sold, leased, lent or transferred, unless a license is
held therefor under sections 411-454 of this title.****
413. Commerce in automatic firearms.
Any person who sells or keeps for sale, or offers, gives
leases or loans, or otherwise disposes of or transports any
firearm or instrument that may be fired automatically, regardless
of whether it is called a machine gun or something else, shall be
guilty of a felony. This type of crime shall not apply to the
manufacture, sale or delivery of machine guns or any other
firearm that may be fired automatically, to be used by the police
and other peace officers or employees of Government of Puerto
Rico or the United States, in prisons, penitentiaries, state or
municipal jails or by the Armed Forces of the Government of the
United States or Puerto Rico.****
415. Possession or illegal use of automatic firearms.
Any person who possesses or uses a machine gun, carbine,
rifle or sawed-off shotgun or any other modification of these, or
any other firearm that may be fired automatically and cause grave
bodily harm, without legal authority shall be guilty of a felony.
This type of crime shall not be applicable to the possession or
use of these weapons in the discharge of their official duties by
members of the Police, the warden, the superintendent or any of
their deputies in any prison, penitentiary, district or municipal
jail, or any other institution for the detention of persons
convicted of or charged a with any offense or held as witnesses
in criminal cases, including marshals and assistant marshals or
any other public peace officers; nor shall it apply to the
possession or use of these weapons by any person when on duty in
the service of the Armed Forces of the United States in Puerto
Rico, or in the postal, customs and immigration service of the
United States, or in any service of the Government of the United
States authorized by the law of its creation to use such weapons,
nor to the possession by common carriers while the latter
transports them directly for delivery at any point for the use of
the officers or persons mentioned above.****
416. Possession of pistol or firearm without license.
Any person who has or possesses any pistol, revolver, or
other firearm without having a license therefor issued as
hereinafter provided, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, if
previously convicted of any violation of this chapter or of any
of the offenses specified in section 427 of this title, or uses
the weapon in the commission of any such offenses, shall be
guilty of a felony.****
420. Possession or sale of silencer.
Any person who has in his possession, sells, or keeps for
sale, loans, offers, gives or disposes of any instrument,
attachment, weapon or appliance, for causing the firing of any
firearm to be silent or intended to lessen or muffle the noise of
the firing of any firearm, shall be guilty of a felony. The
provisions of this section shall not apply to the members of the
Police of Puerto Rico or the National Guard, nor to the members
of the armed forces of the United States.
421. Serial number or name of owner on firearm - Removal or
defacement.
Every firearm shall bear, so as not [to] be easily altered
or defaced, the name of the gunsmith or the trademark under which
the firearm shall be sold or the name of the importer, and
furthermore a serial number or the full name of the owner
engraved thereon. The requirement that every firearm shall have
engraved thereon a serial number or the name of the owner thereof
shall not apply to guns or rifles whose barrel is 18 inches long
or more, nor to rifles .22 caliber or less, whose barrel is 16
inches long or more, manufactured in Puerto Rico to be exported
abroad by the gunsmith himself. The gunsmith shall be under
obligation to take all reasonable measures and precautions to
prevent that such firearms be stolen or otherwise removed from
the gunsmith's warehouses where they are stored pending shipment
and that same be offered, held for sale, sold, leased, or
delivered to any person within Puerto Rico.
Any person shall be guilty of a felony who:
(a) Wilfully removes, defaces, covers, alters, or destroys
the serial number of any firearm or the name of the owner
thereof; or who:
(b) Knowingly buys, sells, receives, alienates, transfers,
carries or has in his possession any firearm from which the
serial number or name of the owner thereof has been removed,
defaced, altered, or destroyed; or who:
(c) Being a dealer in firearms or a gunsmith, or an agent or
representative of such dealer or gunsmith, knowingly purchases,
sells, receives, delivers, alienates, transfers, carries, or has
in his possession any firearm on which the serial number or name
of the owner thereof has been removed, defaced, covered, altered,
or destroyed.
422. - Possession as prima facie evidence of defacement.
The possession by any person other than a public peace
officer of any firearm on which the serial number or name of the
owner thereof has been removed, defaced, covered, altered, or
destroyed, shall be considered prima facie evidence that such
person removed, defaced, covered, altered or destroyed the
same.****
425. License to possess firearms; weapons for farmers.
[*** contact the Superintendent of Police for information
relating to this section.]****
430. Persons who may lawfully carry weapons.
[*** contact the Superintendent of Police for information
relating to this section.]****
432. License to sell or deal in firearms and ammunition; report
of transactions.
(a) No person shall engage in the business of gunsmith or
dealer in firearms and ammunition without holding a license
therefor issued by the Secretary of the Treasury upon favorable
report of the Superintendent of Police of Puerto Rico.
[Renewal of] the licenses of dealers and gunsmiths who have not
deposited all the firearms and ammunition they have for sale in
the Deposit of Firearms and Ammunition *** shall be subject to
the approval and certification of the Police, upon inspection, of
the security measures required for the building where the
establishment is located, pursuant to 4045 of Title 13. ****
(b) The provisions of the preceding subsection (a) shall
likewise be applicable to dealers who introduce firearms and
ammunition into Puerto Rico.
(c) Each transaction regarding the introduction, or the sale
of firearms and ammunition between dealers, shall be reported to
the Secretary of Justice and to the Superintendent of Police of
Puerto Rico on forms which the latter shall provide, and the
name, domicile, place of business, and the particulars of the
license, both of the vendor and vendee, as well as the quantity
and description, including serial number, of the weapons or
ammunition the object of each transaction, shall be set forth
therein, as may be required by the Superintendent of Police of
Puerto Rico. When the firearms to be sold are deposited in the
Firearms and Ammunition Deposit, said form shall be accompanied
by an authorization signed and sealed by the dealer-vendor for
the delivery and registration of such weapons and ammunition in
the name of the dealer-vendee.
(d) A dealer in firearms and ammunition who possesses a
license issued in accordance with this chapter may acquire a
firearm registered in the Weapons Registry under *** section 439
of this title, by purchase from the person who has it registered
in his name, provided such person has a license to have and
possess said firearms, issued in accordance with this chapter.
Before a firearm is sold under the provisions of this subsection,
both the vendor and the vendee shall give notice thereof in
writing to the Superintendent of Police, and the former shall
deliver to said officer his license to have and possess a
firearm. The sale of a firearm under the provisions of this
subsection shall not prevent the vendor from obtaining a new
license to have and possess a firearm in accordance with this
chapter.
433. Application for dealer's license; fee, manner and content.
Any person wishing to obtain or transfer from its premises a
license as gunsmith or dealer in firearms and ammunition shall
file with the Secretary of the Treasury a sworn application
accompanied by an internal revenue voucher for two hundred (200)
dollars, in the manner provided by the Secretary of Justice.***
434. Qualifications of dealer applicant.
No license as gunsmith or dealer in firearms and ammunition
shall be issued to a person not over 21 years of age, and not a
citizen of Puerto Rico and of the United States. ***
436. Conditions for dealers' operations; records of
transactions.
Any person, partnership or corporation, to whom a license
has been issued under the foregoing section may engage in the
retail sale of firearms and ammunition or in the business of
gunsmithing under the following conditions:
1. The business shall be operated only on the premises
specified in the license. Dealers in firearms who have not
received certification from the Police of their compliance with
the security measures in section 432 of this title and in section
45 of Act Jan. 20, 1956, No. 2 may not keep any weapon in said
store except those that the dealer or his employees are
authorized to possess or to carry, according to the provisions of
this chapter In said cases, weapons sales shall be made
exclusively by catalogue or by displaying models made of plastic,
plaster or any other material, as long as these models are not
transformable into firearms, as the term "firearm" is defined in
section 454 of this title, while they are displayed, or
afterwards. Likewise, said dealers shall be obliged to deposit in
the General Headquarters of the Puerto Rico Police any weapon
coming into their hands on the same day such thing occurs.****
2. No gunsmith shall receive any weapon for repair,
modification, cleaning, engraving, polishing, or for doing any
mechanical work on it without first being shown the license to
carry or possess such weapon. ****
3. The license, or a copy thereof, certified by the
authority issuing the same, shall be posted in the establishment
so that it may be easily read.
4. Under no circumstance shall a weapon or shall ammunition
be sold unless the vendor is personally acquainted with the
buyer, or the latter clearly establishes his identity. This
requirement shall not apply to gunsmith businesses as regards
firearms and/or ammunition for export.
5. A record in triplicate shall be kept of each firearm sold
and of each sale of ammunition, in books devoted to this purpose
which shall be printed In the manner that may be prescribed by
the Superintendent of Police of Puerto Rico and the record of
each sale shall be personally signed by the buyer and by the
person making the sale, each in the presence of the other; and
such record shall set forth the date, day and time of the sale,
caliber, make, model and factory number of the weapon, caliber,
brand and quantity of ammunition, the name, birthplace, address,
occupation and civil status of the buyer. Said record shall also
state whether the buyer is personally known to the vendor, and in
case he is not, the manner in which the buyer accredited his
identity. The vendor shall transmit a copy of such record by
registered mail, within five days following the sale, to the
chief of police of the municipality where he has his business
establishment; he shall send the duplicate within seven days
following the purchase to the Superintendent of Police of Puerto
Rico, and shall keep the triplicate for six years.
The requirements imposed in the preceding paragraph shall not
apply to gunsmith businesses with regard to firearms and
ammunition manufactured in, and shipped outside of, Puerto Rico.
Such gunsmith businesses shall comply, as to the manufacture of
firearms and ammunition for such export, with the following
requirements:
Shall keep complete and appropriate records showing the
production or receipt (whether through import, acquisition or
otherwise) and disposal, at wholesale or retail, of all firearms
and ammunition (including firearms not assembled as well as
miscellaneous parts therefor) received or sold in the course of
their business. As soon as each transaction is completed or not
later than at the closing of business operations the day
following such transaction, the same shall be entered upon the
records of the gunsmith business. The records prescribed in this
paragraph shall be permanent and shall be held in the main
establishment in Puerto Rico of the gunsmith business for a
period of not less than ten (10) years reckoning from the date
the transaction took place or until the gunsmith business is
discontinued Such records shall be available for inspection, in
case they are required to be seen by the Secretary of the
Treasury, the Secretary of Justice or the Superintendent of
Police of Puerto Rico. When the gunsmith business discontinues
operation, if same is transferred to another gunsmith business,
said records shall reflect such fact and shall be delivered to
the successor business. In case the gunsmith business is
definitively discontinued and there is no successor business,
then the records of the gunsmith business shall show such fact
and shall be delivered to the Secretary of the Treasury so he may
dispose thereof. The records of a gunsmith business shall show
and include:
(a) A full description of each firearm, including
(1) the manufacturer of same;
(2) the serial number of the manufacturer engraved
thereon;
(3) caliber of the firearm; and
(4) the model and type of the firearm. In case of
wholesale of firearms of the same caliber, model and type, the
gunsmith business may include said sales in its record if they
are made on the same day and to one sole purchaser.
(b) The name and address of each person from whom the
firearm was received (in case the firearm is not the own product
of the gunsmith) together with the date of acquisition.
(c) The disposition made of each firearm, including the name
and address of the person, natural or artificial, to whom sold
and the date it was so disposed of.
6. No firearms or ammunition or imitations, drawings or
photographs thereof shall be displayed in any place of a business
establishment devoted to the sale of firearms, where they may be
seen from outside the business.****
7. Nothing provided in this chapter shall affect the
provisions of the "Internal Revenue Act" as to the payment of the
fees prescribed by said act for issuing licenses to dealers in
firearms and ammunition.
8. Any dealer in firearms or ammunition to whom a license
has been issued under the provisions of this section, who fails
to keep the records and books herein required, or who fails to
demand the presentation of a license to have and possess a
firearm in cases where the presentation of such license is
required by this chapter, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; and
when such dealer in firearms or ammunition sells or delivers a
firearm to any person to whom a license to have and possess a
firearm in accordance with the provisions of section 425 of this
title has not been issued, he shall be guilty of a felony. The
documents and books shall be kept in the business establishment
indicated and described in the license and shall be available
during regular working hours for inspection by any fiscal officer
or peace officer. Where the license has been cancelled or revoked
as prescribed in subsection 6 of this section, or the business
discontinued, such books and records shall be immediately turned
over to the Superintendent of Police of Puerto Rico
437. Acquisition of weapons by persons authorized in section
430.
The officials and persons lawfully authorized to have,
possess, carry, convey and transport firearms under [provisions
of] section 430 of this title, shall obtain such weapons and the
ammunition therefor through the heads of their respective
departments or services
438. Sales of weapons and ammunition without licenses
prohibited; delivery permit.
No dealer in firearms or ammunition shall deliver a firearm
or issue the corresponding delivery permit to a purchaser without
the latter's handing over to him a license to have and possess a
firearm, duly issued in accordance with the provisions of this
chapter, or a hunter's, shooter's or other kind of license
authorizing him, pursuant to law, to possess a firearm, and
unless said license contains an authorization for the purchase of
said weapon, and said dealer shall not sell to such purchaser any
weapon other than the one described in said license. The dealer
in firearms and ammunition shall separate from such license and
keep the sales permit and shall return the license to the
purchaser. No weapon shall be sold to the holder of a license
from which the sales permit has been removed When the purchaser
of a weapon is an authorized hunter or shooter or a person
authorized by another law to possess a firearm, the sale and
delivery of the weapon shall be made in the same manner provided
in subsection (b) of section 429 of this title.
No dealer in firearms or ammunition shall sell any quantity of
ammunition to any person failing to present a license to carry,
or a license to have or possess a firearm. Whenever a sale of
ammunition stored in the Deposit of Firearms and Ammunition of
the Police is made, the dealer shall hand to the purchaser a
signed and sealed authorization addressed to the person in charge
of the Deposit for the latter to deliver to the purchaser the
ammunition described in the authorization and which is stored in
such Deposit of Firearms and Ammunition. Said authorization shall
contain a description of the ammunition and of the amount to be
delivered. Likewise, it shall contain the name of the purchaser
and the number of his license to possess or carry a weapon. Upon
delivery of such ammunition to the purchaser the latter shall be
required to sign a receipt of delivery which shall be kept in the
Deposit of Firearms together with the authorization of delivery.
438a. Report by carrier, warehouseman or depositary; delivery to
consignee.
Every water, air or overland carrier, and every warehouseman
or depositary who receives firearms or munitions for delivery in
Puerto Rico shall notify such fact and the name and address of
the consignee to the Superintendent of Police as soon as
possible, and shall not deliver said merchandise to that
consignee until he is authorized to do so by the Superintendent.
****
445. Hunting and target shooting arms excepted.
The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to the
possession, bearing, carrying, transportation and use of hunting
and target shooting arms to all of which the acts in force on the
matter shall apply.
446. Collections of antique weapons; certificates of
uselessness.
No provision hereof shall prevent that private collections
of antique weapons, which may not be used as weapons be preserved
and maintained and that their owners possess them as ornaments or
as matters of curiosity, nor that collections of weapons be kept
as relics, but for the preservation of any weapon of those
included in this section the prior inspection thereof and
approval therefor by the Superintendent of Police of Puerto Rico
shall be necessary and the latter shall render such weapons
useless, so that the same may not be used as such. The
Superintendent of Police of Puerto Rico shall issue a certificate
of uselessness of all the weapons possessed under the provisions
of this section, and the possession of any weapon not included in
said certificate shall be subject to all the provisions
hereof.****
454. Definitions.
For the purposes of this chapter, the phrases and terms
hereinafter listed shall have the following meaning and
definition:
(a) "Machine gun" is a weapon of any description, regardless
of size, by whatever name it is designated or known, loaded or
unloaded, from which a number of bullets contained in a magazine,
ribbon or other removable receptacle may be repeatedly or
automatically discharged by one single pull of the trigger. The
term machine gun also includes submachine guns, as well as any
other firearm provided with a magazine to automatically fire all
or part of the bullets or ammunition contained in the magazine,
or any combination of the parts of a firearm destined to and with
the intention of converting, modifying or altering said weapon to
make it a machine gun.
(b) "Firearm" means any weapon by whatever name it is known,
capable of discharging ammunition through the expanding action of
gases.
(c) "Ammunition" means any bullet, cartridge, projectile,
buckshot, or any load placed or which may be placed in a firearm
to be discharged. ****
(f) "Gunsmith" means any person, firm, partnership or
corporation engaged in the manufacture, repair, alteration,
assembly, cleaning, polishing, engraving or trueing, or
performing any mechanical operation for another on any pistol,
revolver or other firearm.
(g) "Dealer in firearms or ammunition" shall mean any
person, firm, partnership or corporation that, per se, or through
its agents, servants or employees, purchases or introduces for
sale, sells, trades, exchanges, offers for sale, or displays for
sale, or has for sale, in his business establishment or any other
place, whether it is also used as a residence or not or for. any
other purpose, any pistol, revolver, firearm or ammunition.
(h) "Merchant" means any person, firm, corporation or
partnership that engages, in a premise open to the public which
is not the residence of anyone, in the sale of merchandise and
articles which are object of lawful commerce between men.
(i) "Head of Family" means any person who has established a
permanent home, domicile or residence under his own
responsibility and authority. There may not be more than one head
of household in any permanent home, domicile or residence.
(j) "Dwelling" and "Building" means the entire part of a
structure used or occupied by a single person or a single family:
(k) "Vehicle" means any device that serves for the
transportation of persons or things by land, sea, or air.
(l) "Person", "Merchant" and "Farmer" for the purposes of
sections 425, 426, 427, 428 and 429 of this title shall include a
partnership or corporation, but any license requested for the
benefit of such artificial persons under the provisions of the
sections mentioned may be granted only in the name of a specific
officer or employee of such artificial person, provided such
officer or employee meets the requirements prescribed in this
act.
(m) "Police" means the Police Force of Puerto Rico.
(n) "Superintendent" means the Superintendent of Police of
Puerto Rico.
(o) "Rifle" means a firearm designed to be fired from the
shoulder, that fires one or more projectiles It may be fed by
hand or automatically by a magazine or removable receptacle, and
fired manually or semiautomatically. The word rifle also includes
the word carbine.
(p) "Shotgun" - A long barreled firearm with one ( 1 ) or
more smoothbore barrels, designed to be fired from the shoulder,
that may discharge cartridges of one (1 ) or more shots. It may
be fed by hand or by a removable magazine receptacle, and fired
manually, automatically or semiautomatically.
Chapter 57. Revolvers, Pistols or Instruments Which Fire Blank
Cartridges
541. Prohibited weapons and instruments.
It shall be a misdemeanor, punishable as provided in section
546 of this title, to bear, carry, transport, possess or sell any
weapon, instrument or device whose general configuration conforms
to that of a revolver or pistol and which is capable of
detonating blank shells, blank cartridges or any other unit not
provided with a missile, that could produce explosion through
combustion, including among such weapons, instruments or devices,
those revolvers, pistols, instruments and devices known by the
name of starter's pistol, blank cartridge pistols, blank
cartridge revolvers, blank starter's pistols, blank pistols,
blank revolvers, blank starter's revolvers, or any others whose
general configuration conforms to those of a revolver or pistol
and which fires blank cartridges, blank capsules, or blank
shells. By blank capsule, blank shell or blank cartridge shall be
understood any hollow unit, cylindrical or cubic in form, not
provided with a missile, containing in its interior any chemical
agent or compound capable of producing explosion by combustion,
and provided with a percussion-sensitive detonator
542. Exceptions.
Excepted from the provisions of section 541 above are
revolvers especially manufactured for sportive events and
theatrical shows and used for such purposes, provided the barrel
thereof is a solid cylinder with no orifice whatsoever and ending
in a cone.
CAUTION: State and territorial firearms laws are subject to
frequent change. The above section is not to be considered as
legal advice or a restatement of law. To determine the
applicability of these laws to specific situations which you may
encounter, you are strongly urged to consult a local attorney.
NRA Institute for Legislative Action
11250 Waples Mill Road
Fairfax, Virginia 22030