Unlawful Possession of Weapons in Spain: Crime or Administrative Offence? (Art. 564 CP)

In Spain, having or carrying a weapon is only a crime in a closed list of cases: possessing prohibited weapons in especially dangerous circumstances (Art. 563 CP, one to three years' prison), possessing firearms without a licence (Art. 564 CP) and stockpiling weapons, ammunition or explosives (Arts. 566 to 568 CP). Outside those cases, irregular carrying or possession can only be punished administratively, under Organic Law 4/2015 on the Protection of Public Safety (the so-called “Gag Law”): a fine of EUR 100 to 600 for a minor infringement and EUR 601 to 30,000 for a serious one. Our lawyers for unlawful possession of weapons in Madrid explain where the line falls, weapon by weapon, including for weapons bought abroad.

What Is Weapon Possession Law in Spain?

It runs on two tracks: the Criminal Code (Arts. 563 to 570 CP) and, below it, the fines of the Public Safety Act. Three questions, in this order, decide which one applies:

1. What is the object? The Weapons Regulation (Royal Decree 137/1993, amended by Royal Decree 726/2020) sorts regulated weapons into nine categories (Art. 3) and lists the prohibited ones (Arts. 4 and 5). A bat or a tool is not, in principle, a prohibited weapon.
2. If it is a firearm, is it licensed? If not, Art. 564 CP applies; if it is, but is carried outside the places authorised for its use, it is a serious infringement (Art. 36.10 LO 4/2015).
3. If it is a prohibited weapon, is there real danger? Art. 563 CP only applies with the requirements set by the Constitutional Court in STC 24/2004; without a specific danger to public safety, the response, if any, is administrative.

The Public Safety Act is subsidiary: if the facts may be a crime, the administration refers them to the court or the prosecutor and suspends its own file (Art. 45). Place matters too: the Regulation bans carrying bladed weapons without need and treats carrying weapons in public venues and places of leisure as generally unlawful (Art. 146). A bat in the boot on the way to training is not punishable; under the seat on a Saturday night in a nightlife area it may be seized (Art. 18.2 LO 4/2015), and brandishing it to intimidate is a minor infringement (Art. 37.2).

If a Weapon Has Been Seized: What Happens Next

With indications that someone is carrying a weapon, officers may check people, belongings and vehicles in public places and temporarily take any weapon, even a licensed one (Art. 18 LO 4/2015). Then there are two routes:

• Administrative. A report, the weapon held while the file is open (Art. 47) and a fine, usually imposed by the Government Delegation (Art. 32). Once notified, you have fifteen days to submit arguments or to pay with a 50% reduction, giving up the right to argue (Art. 54). The weapon and the licence may also be withdrawn and the object confiscated (Art. 39.2).
• Criminal. Arrest or a summons to the duty court. If possession is discovered on the spot, the offence is caught in the act and can go to the juicio rápido (fast-track trial, Art. 795 LECrim), where a plea agreement (conformidad) at the duty court reduces the sentence by one third within the limits of Art. 801 LECrim. A conviction means forfeiting the weapon and may add a ban on possessing and carrying weapons (Art. 570.1 CP).

Either way, give no explanations without a lawyer and ask for a copy of the report: the description of the object (blade, mechanism, condition) can decide the classification. If you are arrested and do not understand Spanish, you are entitled to an interpreter and to contact your consulate (Art. 520.2 LECrim).

Weapon by Weapon: Crime or Fine?

The last column shows when there can be an offence, not that there always is one: for prohibited weapons, the Constitutional Court's requirements explained below also apply. “RA” is the Weapons Regulation.

What Counts as a Prohibited Weapon: Arts. 4 and 5 of the Regulation

The Criminal Code does not define a prohibited weapon: it relies on the Weapons Regulation, which works with three lists.

• Absolute ban (Art. 4.1): illegally manufactured or modified firearms, firearms disguised as other objects, pistols fitted with a shoulder stock, sword-canes, daggers, automatic knives and, under letter h), knuckledusters, slungshots, nunchakus, throwing stars and “any other instruments especially dangerous to people's physical integrity”. Their import is banned too, and only authorised museums and collectors may hold them (Art. 4.2).
• Banned except for authorised officers (Art. 5.1): stun devices, rubber or extendable batons, tonfas, unapproved sprays, silencers and sawn-off firearms, among others.
• Home only (Arts. 5.2 and 5.3): imitation firearms that could be mistaken for real ones, and non-automatic folding knives with a blade over 11 cm.

The Boundary Under Art. 563 CP: the Constitutional Court's Four Requirements

Art. 563 CP punishes with one to three years' prison the possession of prohibited weapons and of substantially modified regulated weapons. In STC 24/2004 of 24 February, the full Constitutional Court upheld its first limb only on a restrictive reading. Under legal ground 8, the weapon must:

1. be materially a weapon, not merely an object that an administrative rule calls one;
2. be banned by a rule with the force of law or by the Regulation to which the law refers (weapons added by ministerial order do not count);
3. have a special potential to cause harm; and
4. be possessed in circumstances that make it especially dangerous to public safety in the specific case.

Without that specific danger, the matter belongs to administrative penalty law: an automatic knife forgotten in the glovebox is not the same as one carried in a nightlife area after a fight. In STS 217/2026 of 16 March, the Supreme Court upheld a conviction for possessing a rigid extendable baton, recalling that classifying an object as a prohibited weapon derives from the administrative weapons regulations (see the extendable baton as a prohibited weapon). If there was clearly no intention to use the weapon unlawfully, the penalty may be reduced by one degree (Art. 565 CP).

Firearms Without a Licence, With an Expired Licence or Inherited

Art. 564 CP punishes possessing regulated firearms without the necessary licences or permits with one to two years' prison for handguns and six months to one year for long guns; two to three years and one to two years, respectively, if the weapon has no manufacturer's marks or serial number or they have been altered or erased, was brought into Spain illegally, or has been converted (Art. 564.2). More in Art. 564 CP and its defence and unlawful possession of firearms.

• Expired licence. Type B, D, E and F licences last five years (Arts. 99.6, 100.2, 101.2 and 134 RA). Applying for a new one before the old one expires may earn a three-month temporary authorisation (Art. 103 RA), and anyone who is no longer authorised must deposit the weapon immediately with the Guardia Civil weapons office (Art. 165.1 RA). The Public Prosecutor's Office takes the view that failing to renew the licence does not fall within Art. 564 CP, unlike never having had one (FGE Consulta 14/1997, conclusion 6, issued for hunting weapons); if there is no offence, it may be a serious infringement (Art. 36.12 LO 4/2015).
• Inherited firearm. Heirs or executors must deposit it with the Guardia Civil weapons office within six months of the death; for one year they can acquire it lawfully, sell it, register it or deactivate it (Art. 93 RA). Doing nothing exposes them to Art. 564, with mistake as to unlawfulness (Art. 14.3 CP) and the Art. 565 reduction as possible defences.

Weapons Bought Abroad or Brought Into Spain

Spanish rules classify the object, wherever it was bought: what is legal at home may not be legal here.

• Travelling from another EU country. A resident of another Member State may only have a regulated firearm with them while travelling in Spain with Guardia Civil authorisation recorded on their European Firearms Pass, which must be shown whenever officers ask (Art. 112 RA). Hunters, sport shooters and historical re-enactors need no prior authorisation if the weapons are listed on the pass and they can prove the purpose of the trip, such as an invitation; that never covers firearms prohibited in Spain.
• Moving to Spain. Bringing firearms in from another EU country generally requires a prior Guardia Civil permit, and the weapons must be presented at the nearest Guardia Civil weapons office on arrival (Art. 76 RA).
• Living outside the EU. Visiting hunters may obtain a three-month special authorisation for up to three hunting weapons (Art. 110 RA); competition shooters follow their own procedure (Art. 111 RA).
• Without that paperwork. A home-country licence is not a Spanish permit. Possessing a firearm in Spain without the licences or permits required here can lead to Art. 564 CP, with a higher penalty for weapons “introduced illegally into Spanish territory” (Art. 564.2.2.ª). If it is not an offence, transporting or using a regulated weapon without the required documents is a serious infringement (Art. 36.12 LO 4/2015); which route applies depends on the case.

Tasers, sprays, replicas and airsoft. A taser bought legally abroad, or a spray not approved by the Spanish Ministry of Health, is treated as if it had been bought here. A replica may only be kept at home unless its model is approved by the Guardia Civil (Art. 5.2 RA). An airsoft gun only counts as one within the limits of Order INT/2860/2012 (projectiles of up to 0.45 g and 8 mm, muzzle energy of up to 3.5 joules), and carrying it outside the home requires a weapons card from the town hall where you live (Art. 105 RA). Above those limits the Order no longer applies: a semi-automatic, repeating or single-shot gun powered by air or gas falls under the general categories of Art. 3 RA, that is, the 4th category or, if its muzzle energy exceeds 24.2 joules, the 3rd category, which requires a type E licence (Art. 101 RA). Check a model bought abroad before bringing it.

Weapons of War, Stockpiles and Explosives (Arts. 566 to 570 CP)

Above individual possession come stockpiles of five or more regulated firearms (Arts. 566.1.2.º and 567.3: two to four years' prison for promoters and organisers and six months to two years for those who cooperate), weapons of war, whose mere possession already counts as a stockpile (Arts. 566.1.1.º and 567.1: five to ten years and three to five years), and explosives (Art. 568: four to eight years and three to five years). See weapons and ammunition stockpiling, Art. 568 CP on explosives, stockpiling cases and the article-by-article overview of Arts. 563-570 CP.

Public Safety Act Fines for Weapons

All of them apply only if the conduct is not a crime (Art. 45). None of them mentions merely keeping a prohibited weapon at home: Art. 36.10 punishes carrying, displaying or using it, and Art. 36.12 refers to activities involving regulated weapons, such as acquiring, storing, transporting or using them without the required documents. Confiscation is an accessory penalty to the fine (Art. 39.2).

As a rule, a fine for a serious infringement is imposed in its lowest band (EUR 601 to 10,400) and rises with repeat offending, violence or intimidation, among other circumstances (Arts. 33 and 39). Infringements are time-barred after six months, one year or two years, depending on whether they are minor, serious or very serious (Art. 38).

Criminal Record: What Each Track Leaves Behind

• Administrative fine: no criminal record. It goes on the Central Register of Public Safety Infringements, only to assess repeat offending under that law, and is cancelled automatically after one, two or three years for minor, serious or very serious infringements (Art. 43 LO 4/2015).
• Criminal conviction: creates a criminal record, cancelled after a period without reoffending counted from the end of the sentence: two years (sentences of up to twelve months), three (under three years), five (three to five years) or ten (over five years) (Art. 136 CP). A sentence of up to two years with no previous convictions that count may be suspended (Art. 80 CP). See how to clear a criminal record.

Both weigh afterwards: the Regulation treats as unlawful the carrying of weapons by people convicted of offences against persons or property or of misuse of weapons, or penalised for breaching it (Art. 146.2). And the intervention stays in police records, which are not the same as a criminal record (police records versus criminal records).

Defence Strategy

If you are accused of unlawful possession or face an administrative file, the defence works on five fronts:

1. Lawfulness of the stop or search: in the street, officers need indications (Art. 18.1 LO 4/2015); in a home, consent, a court order or a flagrant offence (Art. 18.2 of the Spanish Constitution). If fundamental rights were breached, the defence can ask for the evidence not to be used.
2. Nature of the object: an expert report on the blade, mechanism, edges, ability to fire or approval of the spray.
3. The STC 24/2004 requirements: above all, challenging the specific danger.
4. Art. 565 CP reduction and mistake (Art. 14.3 CP): showing there was no unlawful purpose (collecting, an inheritance, a weapon kept in a gun cabinet).
5. Administrative file: submitting arguments in time and asking the officers to confirm their report if the facts are denied (Art. 52 LO 4/2015).