Illegal Firearm Possession: Art. 564 Criminal Code & Defence (2026)

Article 564 of the Spanish Criminal Code (CP) criminalises the illegal possession of regulated firearms: holding a pistol, revolver, shotgun or rifle without the required licences or permits. It is one of the offences against public safety that most often arises from everyday situations gone wrong — inherited weapons, licences that were not renewed, or modified guns. As criminal defence lawyers specialising in illegal firearm possession, we explain what the provision punishes, its aggravating factors, how it differs from other offences, and the available lines of defence.

What Art. 564 CP Punishes

Art. 564.1 punishes holding regulated firearms without the necessary licences or permits. The protected interest is public safety: what is reproached is not a specific harm but the risk created by having a weapon outside administrative control. It is therefore an offence of mere possession that does not require the weapon to have been used. The penalty varies by type of weapon:

• Handguns (pistol, revolver): one to two years in prison.
• Long guns (shotgun, rifle): six months to one year in prison.

The provision requires the weapon to be regulated (one that may be held with the corresponding licence) and fit to fire. These two requirements are, as we shall see, a common battleground for the defence.

Aggravating Factors: Erased Serial Number and Others

Art. 564.2 raises the penalty to two-three years (handguns) and one-two years (long guns) where one of these three circumstances applies:

• 1st. The weapon lacks factory marks or a serial number, or has them altered or erased.
• 2nd. It was brought into Spanish territory illegally.
• 3rd. It has been modified, altering its original characteristics.

The first — an altered or erased serial number — is the most common, because it hinders the weapon's traceability. The third covers, for example, blank-firing or starter pistols modified to fire live ammunition, which cease to be mere replicas and are then treated as firearms.

Difference from Stockpiling Weapons (Art. 567 CP)

Illegal possession under Art. 564 concerns one or a few weapons. When the quantity grows, stockpiling comes into play. Art. 567.3 CP defines a stockpile of regulated firearms as the manufacture, trading or gathering of five or more such weapons, even in disassembled parts. The conduct is then punished under Art. 566.1.2 CP, with two to four years' imprisonment for promoters and organisers and six months to two years for those who cooperated in its formation. It is therefore a separate and more serious offence than mere possession. You can read more on our illegal weapons possession page.

Criminal Offence versus Administrative Penalty

Not every irregularity with a weapon is a crime. The Organic Law on the Protection of Public Safety penalises as an administrative offence conduct such as carrying a weapon without its paperwork where it does not reach the criminal threshold, or certain breaches of the Weapons Regulation. The line is not always clear-cut and usually turns on the weapon's fitness to fire, on whether authorisation exists, and on the real risk created. Separating the criminal sphere from the administrative one is often the defence's first objective, because it avoids criminal liability and a criminal record.

Defence Strategies

Charges under Art. 564 usually arise from everyday situations: licences that lapsed or were not renewed in time, weapons inherited from a deceased relative that nobody regularised, items found during a home search for an unrelated case, or modified blank-firing guns bought without any awareness of their unlawfulness. In all of these the criminal response is not automatic, and a defence against a charge under Art. 564 is built on several lines, to be assessed case by case:

• Expert report on fitness to fire: the offence requires a weapon capable of firing. If a ballistics report establishes that the weapon is deactivated, damaged or non-functional, the offence falls away.
• Title and actual availability: having access to a weapon is not the same as possessing it in the criminal sense. The defence may deny actual availability over the weapon or its attribution to someone who did not control it.
• Mistake: a mistake as to the weapon's administrative status (believing in good faith that the paperwork was in order, or being unaware that a licence was needed for an inherited weapon) can exclude or mitigate intent.
• Lack of unlawful intent (Art. 565): even where possession exists, showing there was no intent to use the weapon unlawfully opens the one-degree reduction in penalty.
• Early regularisation: putting the paperwork in order, surrendering the weapon or starting the administrative formalities as soon as possible improves the procedural position.