Federal Act
on Weapons, Weapon Accessories and Ammunition
(Weapons Act, WA)

¹ The pur­pose of this Act is to pre­vent the im­prop­er use of weapons, weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents.

² It reg­u­lates the ac­quis­i­tion, bring­ing in­to Switzer­land, ex­port, stor­age, pos­ses­sion, car­ry­ing, trans­port, broker­age, man­u­fac­ture of, and trade in:

a.

weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, and weapon ac­cessor­ies;

b.

am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents.

³ The pur­pose of this Act is also to pre­vent the im­prop­er car­ry­ing of dan­ger­ous ob­jects.

¹ This Act does not ap­ply to the Swiss Army, the Fed­er­al In­tel­li­gence Ser­vice, the cus­toms au­thor­it­ies or the po­lice ser­vices. Nor does it ap­ply to the mil­it­ary au­thor­it­ies, with the ex­cep­tion of Art­icles 32a^bis, 32c and 32j.⁶

² An­tique weapons are gov­erned solely by Art­icles 27 and 28, and by the rel­ev­ant crim­in­al pro­vi­sions of this Act. An­tique weapons are defined as fire­arms that were man­u­fac­tured be­fore 1870, and cut, thrust or oth­er weapons that were man­u­fac­tured be­fore 1900.

³ This Act ap­plies without pre­ju­dice to the pro­vi­sions of fed­er­al hunt­ing and mil­it­ary le­gis­la­tion.

The right to ac­quire, pos­sess and carry weapons in com­pli­ance with this Act is guar­an­teed.

¹ Weapons are defined as:

a.

devices that al­low pro­jectiles to be fired by means of a pro­pel­lant charge and that can be car­ried and op­er­ated by a single per­son, or ob­jects that can be con­ver­ted in­to such devices (fire­arms);

b.

devices that are in­ten­ded to per­man­ently en­danger a per­son’s health through the spray­ing or va­por­isa­tion of sub­stances;

c.

knives whose blade can be opened by means of an auto­mat­ic mech­an­ism that re­quires the use of one hand only, but­ter­fly knives, throw­ing knives, and dag­gers with a sym­met­ric­al blade;

d.

devices that are in­ten­ded to in­jure a per­son, in par­tic­u­lar knuckle­dust­ers, simple or spring bat­ons, throw­ing stars and sling­shots;

e.

elec­tric­al shock devices that can im­pair a per­son’s power of res­ist­ance or per­man­ently dam­age a per­son’s health;

f.

com­pressed air and CO₂ weapons that de­vel­op a muzzle en­ergy of at least 7.5 joules or that can be mis­taken for real fire­arms due to their ap­pear­ance;

g.

im­it­a­tion, blank cart­ridge and air­soft weapons that can be mis­taken for real fire­arms due to their ap­pear­ance.

² Weapon ac­cessor­ies are defined as:

a.

si­len­cers and their spe­cially de­signed com­pon­ents;

b.

laser and night vis­ion devices, and their spe­cially de­signed com­pon­ents;

c.

gren­ade launch­ers that are de­signed as an ad­di­tion­al device for a fire­arm.

^2bis High ca­pa­city load­ing devices are load­ing devices for semi-auto­mat­ic centre­fire weapons that have a ca­pa­city of:

a.

more than 20 rounds in the case of hand­guns;

b.

more than 10 rounds in the case of small fire­arms.⁸

^2ter A Schen­gen state is a state bound by any of the Schen­gen As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments. The Schen­gen As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments are lis­ted in the An­nex.⁹

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­cides which ob­jects are es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed com­pon­ents of weapons and weapon ac­cessor­ies, and are there­fore reg­u­lated by this Act.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil defines which com­pressed air, CO₂, im­it­a­tion, blank cart­ridge and air­soft weapons, knives, dag­gers, elec­tric­al shock devices, devices in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 let­ter b, and sling­shots are con­sidered to be weapons.

⁵ Am­muni­tion is defined as fir­ing ma­ter­i­al con­tain­ing a pro­pel­lant charge whose en­ergy is trans­mit­ted onto a pro­jectile by ig­ni­tion in a fire­arm.

⁶ Dan­ger­ous ob­jects are defined as ob­jects such as tools, house­hold ap­pli­ances and sports equip­ment that can be used to in­jure a per­son. Pen­knives, such as the Swiss Army pock­et knife and sim­il­ar products, are not con­sidered to be dan­ger­ous ob­jects.

¹ The trans­fer, ac­quis­i­tion, broker­age for re­cip­i­ents in Switzer­land, bring­ing in­to Switzer­land and the pos­ses­sion of the fol­low­ing weapons are pro­hib­ited:

a.

auto­mat­ic fire­arms and mil­it­ary launch­ing devices for am­muni­tion, for pro­jectiles or for mis­siles that have an ex­plos­ive ef­fect, and their es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed com­pon­ents;

b.

auto­mat­ic fire­arms mod­i­fied to semi-auto­mat­ic fire­arms, and their es­sen­tial com­pon­ents; the fore­go­ing does not ap­ply to Swiss army fire­arms the own­er­ship of which is ac­quired by the hold­er dir­ectly from the mil­it­ary au­thor­it­ies, and to com­pon­ents es­sen­tial for main­tain­ing the func­tion­al­ity of such weapons;

c.

the fol­low­ing semi-auto­mat­ic centre­fire weapons:

1.

hand­guns equipped with a high-ca­pa­city load­ing device,

2.

small fire­arms equipped with a high-ca­pa­city load­ing device;

d.

semi-auto­mat­ic small fire­arms that may be shortened by means of a fold­ing or tele­scop­ic shaft or without aux­il­i­ary means to a length of less than 60 cm, without los­ing any func­tion­al­ity;

e.

fire­arms that re­semble an art­icle of every­day use and their es­sen­tial com­pon­ents;

f.

gren­ade launch­ers in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 para­graph 2 let­ter c.

² The trans­fer, ac­quis­i­tion, broker­age for re­cip­i­ents in Switzer­land, bring­ing in­to Switzer­land and the pos­ses­sion of the fol­low­ing weapons are pro­hib­ited:

a.

knives and dag­gers in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 para­graph 1 let­ter c;

b.

strik­ing and throw­ing devices in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 para­graph 1 let­ter d, with the ex­cep­tion of bat­ons;

c.

elec­tric­al shock devices in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 para­graph 1 let­ter e;

d.

weapon ac­cessor­ies.

³ Shoot­ing with the fol­low­ing weapons is pro­hib­ited:

a.

auto­mat­ic fire­arms;

b.

mil­it­ary launch­ing devices for am­muni­tion, for pro­jectiles or for mis­siles that have an ex­plos­ive ef­fect;

⁴ Shoot­ing us­ing fire­arms in pub­licly ac­cess­ible places out­side of­fi­cially au­thor­ised shoot­ing events or shoot­ing ranges is pro­hib­ited.

⁵ Shoot­ing us­ing fire­arms in places not ac­cess­ible to the pub­lic that have been ap­pro­pri­ately pro­tec­ted, and shoot­ing while hunt­ing is per­mit­ted.

⁶ The can­tons may au­thor­ise ex­cep­tions to the pro­hib­i­tions in para­graphs 1-4.

⁷ The Cent­ral Of­fice (Art. 31c) may au­thor­ise ex­cep­tions to the ban on bring­ing weapons in­to Switzer­land.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may pro­hib­it or make sub­ject to com­pli­ance with spe­cial con­di­tions the ac­quis­i­tion, pos­ses­sion, man­u­fac­ture and bring­ing in­to Switzer­land of am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents that are proven to po­ten­tially cause ser­i­ous in­jury.

² Am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents that are used at or­din­ary shoot­ing events or for hunt­ing are ex­empt.

¹ Any per­son who ac­quires through in­her­it­ance weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents or weapon ac­cessor­ies that are pro­hib­ited un­der Art­icle 5 para­graph 1 must ap­ply for an ex­emp­tion per­mit with­in six months.

² For­eign na­tion­als who do not have a set­tle­ment per­mit but who are res­id­ent in Switzer­land may only be gran­ted an ex­emp­tion per­mit for the ac­quis­i­tion of a weapon, an es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ent or weapon ac­cess­ory un­der Art­icle 5 para­graph 1 if they sub­mit an of­fi­cial at­test­a­tion from their home coun­try con­firm­ing that they are au­thor­ised to ac­quire such an ob­ject.

¹ Per­sons who are res­id­ent abroad may only be gran­ted an ex­emp­tion per­mit for the ac­quis­i­tion of a weapon, an es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ent or weapon ac­cess­ory un­der Art­icle 5 para­graph 1 if they sub­mit an of­fi­cial at­test­a­tion from their coun­try of res­id­ence con­firm­ing that they are au­thor­ised to ac­quire such an ob­ject.¹⁴

² Where there is doubt as to the au­then­ti­city of the at­test­a­tion or the per­son is not able to sub­mit such an at­test­a­tion, the can­ton shall for­ward the file to the Cent­ral Of­fice. The Cent­ral Of­fice shall ex­am­ine the at­test­a­tion or may is­sue one if ap­pro­pri­ate.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may pro­hib­it the ac­quis­i­tion, pos­ses­sion, of­fer­ing for ac­quis­i­tion, broker­age or trans­fer of weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents, and the car­ry­ing of and shoot­ing with weapons by na­tion­als of cer­tain states:

a.

if there is con­sid­er­able risk of im­prop­er use;

b.

in or­der to take in­to ac­count res­ol­u­tions by the in­ter­na­tion­al com­munity or prin­ciples of Swiss for­eign policy.

² The can­tons may ex­cep­tion­ally al­low per­sons re­ferred to in para­graph 1 who par­ti­cip­ate in hunt­ing or shoot­ing events or who per­form tasks re­lat­ing to the pro­tec­tion of people or prop­erty to ac­quire, pos­sess or carry a weapon, or to shoot.

¹ Per­sons sub­ject to a ban un­der Art­icle 7 para­graph 1 must re­gister weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents with the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity in their can­ton of res­id­ence with­in two months of the ban com­ing in­to force.

² They may sub­mit an ap­plic­a­tion for an ex­emp­tion per­mit with­in six months of the ban com­ing in­to force. Fail­ing that, they must trans­fer pos­ses­sion of the ob­jects to an au­thor­ised per­son with­in this dead­line.

³ If the ap­plic­a­tion for an ex­emp­tion per­mit is re­fused, the ob­jects must be trans­ferred to the pos­ses­sion of an au­thor­ised per­son with­in four months of the ap­plic­a­tion be­ing re­jec­ted: fail­ing that, the ob­jects will be con­fis­cated.

¹ It is pro­hib­ited to of­fer weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapons com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents for ac­quis­i­tion if the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies are un­able to identi­fy the sup­pli­er.

² It is pro­hib­ited to of­fer weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents for ac­quis­i­tion at pub­lic ex­hib­i­tions and mar­kets. Re­gistered sup­pli­ers at pub­lic weapons trade fairs and au­thor­ised by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity are ex­empt.

¹ Any per­son who wishes to ac­quire a weapon or es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ent re­quires a weapon ac­quis­i­tion per­mit.²¹

^1bis Any per­son who ap­plies for a weapon ac­quis­i­tion per­mit for a fire­arm that is not in­ten­ded for use in sport, hunt­ing or as a col­lect­or’s item must provide the reas­on for its ac­quis­i­tion.²²

² A weapon ac­quis­i­tion per­mit shall not be is­sued to any per­son:

a.

who has not yet reached 18 years of age;

b.²³

who is sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship or is rep­res­en­ted through a care ap­pointee;

c.

if there is reas­on to be­lieve that they may use the weapon to harm them­selves or oth­ers;

d.²⁴

in re­spect of whom a con­vic­tion for an act that in­dic­ates a vi­ol­ent dis­pos­i­tion or that presents a danger to pub­lic safety, or for re­peated felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours ap­pears in a stand­ard private ex­tract in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 41 of the Crim­in­al Re­cords Re­gister Act of 17 June 2016²⁵.

^2bis Any per­son who ac­quires fire­arms or es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ents through in­her­it­ance must ap­ply for a weapon ac­quis­i­tion per­mit with­in six months un­less the ob­jects are trans­ferred to the pos­ses­sion of an au­thor­ised per­son with­in this dead­line.²⁶

^3–5 ...²⁷

¹ The weapon ac­quis­i­tion per­mit is is­sued by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity in the can­ton of res­id­ence, or for per­sons who reside abroad by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity in the can­ton in which the weapon is ac­quired.

² The au­thor­ity shall ob­tain in ad­vance an opin­ion from the can­ton­al au­thor­ity in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 6 of the Fed­er­al Act of 21 March 1997²⁹ on Meas­ures to Safe­guard In­tern­al Se­cur­ity.

¹ Per­sons res­id­ent abroad must present the can­ton­al au­thor­ity with an of­fi­cial at­test­a­tion from their coun­try of res­id­ence con­firm­ing they are au­thor­ised to ac­quire the weapon or es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ent.

^1bis For­eign na­tion­als who do not have a set­tle­ment per­mit but who are res­id­ent in Switzer­land must present the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity with an of­fi­cial at­test­a­tion from their home coun­try con­firm­ing they are au­thor­ised to ac­quire the weapon or es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ent in that coun­try.³¹

² Where there is doubt as to the au­then­ti­city of the at­test­a­tion or the per­son is not able to sub­mit such an at­test­a­tion, the can­ton shall for­ward the file to the Cent­ral Of­fice. The Cent­ral Of­fice shall ex­am­ine the at­test­a­tion or may is­sue one where ap­pro­pri­ate.

¹ The weapon ac­quis­i­tion per­mit is val­id throughout Switzer­land and au­thor­ises the hold­er to ac­quire a single weapon or a single es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ent.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil al­lows for ex­cep­tions re­gard­ing the re­place­ment of es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ents for a leg­ally au­thor­ised weapon, the ac­quis­i­tion of sev­er­al weapons or es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ents by the same per­son, or ac­quis­i­tion through in­her­it­ance.

³ The weapon ac­quis­i­tion per­mit is val­id for six months. The com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies may ex­tend its valid­ity by a max­im­um of three months.

Any per­son who trans­fers the pos­ses­sion of a weapon or an es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ent must send a copy of the weapon ac­quis­i­tion per­mit of the per­son ac­quir­ing the weapon or es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ent to the au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for is­su­ing weapon ac­quis­i­tion per­mits un­der Art­icle 9 with­in 30 days of con­clud­ing the con­tract.

¹ A weapon ac­quis­i­tion per­mit is not re­quired for ac­quir­ing the fol­low­ing weapons and their es­sen­tial com­pon­ents:

a.

single-shot and multi-bar­rel hunt­ing rifles, and rep­licas of single-shot muzzle load­ers;

b.

manu­al re­pe­ti­tion rifles des­ig­nated by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and typ­ic­ally used for off-duty and re­cre­ation­al tar­get shoot­ing re­cog­nised un­der the Armed Forces Act of 3 Feb­ru­ary 1995³⁵ and for hunt­ing pur­poses in Switzer­land;

c.

single-shot rab­bit slay­ers;

d.

com­pressed air and CO² weapons that de­vel­op a muzzle en­ergy of at least 7.5 joules or that can be mis­taken for real fire­arms due to their ap­pear­ance;

e.

im­it­a­tion, blank cart­ridge and air­soft weapons that can be mis­taken for real fire­arms due to their ap­pear­ance.³⁶

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may define oth­er ex­cep­tions or re­strict the scope of ap­plic­a­tion of para­graph 1 for for­eign na­tion­als in Switzer­land who do not have a set­tle­ment per­mit.

¹ Any per­son who trans­fers the pos­ses­sion of a weapon or an es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ent that does not re­quire a weapon ac­quis­i­tion per­mit (Art. 10) must veri­fy the iden­tity and age of the per­son ac­quir­ing the weapon or es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ent by means of an of­fi­cial iden­tity doc­u­ment.

² The pos­ses­sion of a weapon or es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ent may only be trans­ferred if the per­son trans­fer­ring pos­ses­sion may as­sume in the cir­cum­stances that there are no im­ped­i­ments for do­ing so un­der Art­icle 8.

³ Art­icle 9a ap­plies by ana­logy.

⁴ The per­son trans­fer­ring pos­ses­sion may ask the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of the can­ton of res­id­ence of the per­son ac­quir­ing the weapon or weapon com­pon­ent wheth­er there are any im­ped­i­ments to ac­quis­i­tion. This in­quiry re­quires the writ­ten con­sent of the per­son ac­quir­ing the weapon or es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ent.³⁸

¹ A writ­ten con­tract must be con­cluded for trans­fer­ring pos­ses­sion of any weapon or es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ent that does not re­quire a weapon ac­quis­i­tion per­mit (Art. 10). Each con­tract­ing party must re­tain the con­tract for at least ten years.

² The con­tract must con­tain the fol­low­ing de­tails:

a.

sur­name, first name, date of birth, home ad­dress and sig­na­ture of the per­son who is trans­fer­ring pos­ses­sion of the weapon or es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ent;

b.

sur­name, first name, date of birth, home ad­dress and sig­na­ture of the per­son who is ac­quir­ing the weapon or es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ent;

c.⁴⁰

type of weapon, man­u­fac­turer, mod­el, cal­ibre, weapon num­ber and the date and place of trans­fer;

d.⁴¹

type and num­ber of the of­fi­cial iden­tity doc­u­ment of the per­son who is ac­quir­ing the weapon or es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ent, or a copy of the iden­tity doc­u­ment where pos­ses­sion of the weapon is trans­ferred;

e.⁴²

a ref­er­ence to the pro­cessing of per­son­al data in con­nec­tion with the con­tract in ac­cord­ance with the data pro­tec­tion pro­vi­sions of the Con­fed­er­a­tion or the can­tons, provided that the pos­ses­sion of fire­arms is trans­ferred.

³ Any per­son who trans­fers pos­ses­sion of a fire­arm spe­cified in Art­icle 10 para­graphs 1 and 3⁴³ must send the re­port­ing of­fice (Art. 31b) a copy of the con­tract with­in 30 day of its con­clu­sion. The can­tons may make fur­ther pro­vi­sions for oth­er suit­able forms of no­ti­fic­a­tion.⁴⁴

⁴ Any per­son who through in­her­it­ance ac­quires a fire­arm or es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ent spe­cified in Art­icle 10 must trans­mit to the re­port­ing of­fice the de­tails spe­cified in para­graph 2 let­ters a–d with­in six months if he or she does not trans­fer pos­ses­sion of the ob­ject to an au­thor­ised per­son with­in this dead­line.⁴⁵

5 The re­port­ing of­fice of the can­ton of res­id­ence of the per­son ac­quir­ing the fire­arm is the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity. For per­sons res­id­ent abroad, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity is the re­port­ing of­fice of the can­ton in which the fire­arm was ac­quired.

¹ A minor may bor­row a sports weapon from their shoot­ing club or their leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive if they can prove that they reg­u­larly use this weapon for tar­get shoot­ing and if no im­ped­i­ment un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 2 let­ter b or c ap­plies.

² The leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive must no­ti­fy the re­port­ing of­fice in the minor’s can­ton of res­id­ence about the loan of the weapon with­in 30 days. The re­port­ing of­fice may also be no­ti­fied by the club that loaned the weapon provid­ing that the leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive has know­ledge of this no­ti­fic­a­tion.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the de­tails.

Any per­son who has law­fully ac­quired a weapon or an es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ent is au­thor­ised to pos­sess the same.

¹ Am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents may only be ac­quired by per­sons who are au­thor­ised to ac­quire the cor­res­pond­ing weapon.

² The per­son trans­fer­ring pos­ses­sion shall veri­fy wheth­er the con­di­tions of ac­quis­i­tion are ful­filled. Art­icle 10aap­plies by ana­logy to veri­fic­a­tion.

¹ Any per­son who par­ti­cip­ates in shoot­ing events by shoot­ing clubs may freely ac­quire the ne­ces­sary am­muni­tion for the event. The club or­gan­ising the event shall ap­pro­pri­ately mon­it­or how the am­muni­tion is is­sued.⁵³

² Any per­son who has not yet reached the age of 18 may freely ac­quire am­muni­tion if it is used for shoot­ing im­me­di­ately and un­der su­per­vi­sion.

³ The pro­vi­sions on off-duty shoot­ing re­main without pre­ju­dice.

Any per­son who has law­fully ac­quired am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents is au­thor­ised to pos­sess the same.

¹ High ca­pa­city load­ing devices may only be ac­quired by per­sons who are au­thor­ised to ac­quire the cor­res­pond­ing weapon.

² The per­son trans­fer­ring pos­ses­sion shall veri­fy wheth­er the ac­quis­i­tion re­quire­ments have been met.

Any per­son who has law­fully ac­quired a high ca­pa­city load­ing device is au­thor­ised to pos­sess the same.

¹ Any per­son who com­mer­cially ac­quires, of­fers for ac­quis­i­tion, passes on or brokers weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents re­quires a weapons trad­ing per­mit.

² A weapons trad­ing per­mit is gran­ted to a per­son who:

a.

is not sub­ject to an im­ped­i­ment un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 2;

b.

is re­gistered in the com­mer­cial re­gister;

c.

in a test has shown them­selves to pos­sess ad­equate know­ledge of the rel­ev­ant weapons and am­muni­tion, and the stat­utory pro­vi­sions;

d.

has spe­cial com­mer­cial premises in which weapons, es­sen­tial and spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents can be kept se­curely;

e.

guar­an­tees the prop­er con­duct of their busi­ness af­fairs.

³ Leg­al en­tit­ies must des­ig­nate a mem­ber of the man­age­ment who is re­spons­ible with­in the com­pany for all as­pects con­cern­ing this Act.

⁴ The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Justice and Po­lice is­sues the ex­am­in­a­tion reg­u­la­tions and defines the min­im­um re­quire­ments for busi­ness premises.

⁵ The weapons trad­ing per­mit is is­sued by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of the can­ton in which the busi­ness es­tab­lish­ment of the ap­plic­ant is loc­ated. Branches loc­ated out­side the can­ton re­quire their own weapons trad­ing per­mit.

⁶ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the con­di­tions for the par­ti­cip­a­tion of hold­ers of for­eign weapons trad­ing per­mits in pub­lic weapons trade fairs.

⁷ If a trans­fer of pos­ses­sion takes place between hold­ers of a weapons trad­ing per­mit, the per­son trans­fer­ring pos­ses­sion must no­ti­fy the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of their can­ton of res­id­ence of the trans­fer of pos­ses­sion, in par­tic­u­lar of the type and num­ber of ob­jects trans­ferred, with­in 30 days of con­clu­sion of the con­tract.

A weapons trad­ing per­mit is re­quired by any per­son who com­mer­cially:

a.

man­u­fac­tures weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents;

b.

mod­i­fies weapon parts that are es­sen­tial to its func­tion­ing or im­pact; or

c.

re­pairs or con­verts fire­arms, their es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents.

¹ Man­u­fac­tur­ers of fire­arms and their es­sen­tial com­pon­ents or ac­cessor­ies must mark these ob­jects in­di­vidu­ally and clearly for the pur­pose of iden­ti­fic­a­tion and trace­ab­il­ity. ... .^{59 60}

² All fire­arms and their es­sen­tial com­pon­ents and ac­cessor­ies brought in­to Switzer­land must be marked in­di­vidu­ally and clearly.

³ Mark­ings must be ap­plied in such a way that they can­not be re­moved or altered without mech­an­ic­al ef­fort.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may make pro­vi­sion for un­marked fire­arms to be brought in­to Switzer­land for a max­im­um of one year.

¹ Man­u­fac­tur­ers of am­muni­tion must mark every ele­ment­ary pack­age of am­muni­tion in­di­vidu­ally for the pur­pose of iden­ti­fic­a­tion and trace­ab­il­ity.

² Every ele­ment­ary pack­age of am­muni­tion brought in­to Switzer­land must be marked in­di­vidu­ally.

¹ The non-com­mer­cial man­u­fac­ture of weapons, es­sen­tial com­pon­ents or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents, and the non-com­mer­cial con­ver­sion of ob­jects in­to weapons as defined in Art­icle 5 para­graphs 1 and 2 are pro­hib­ited.

² The non-com­mer­cial con­ver­sion of ob­jects in­to weapons or es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ents oth­er than those spe­cified in Art­icle 5 para­graph 1 re­quires a per­mit. Art­icles 8, 9, 9b para­graph 3, 9c, 10, 11 para­graphs 3 and 5 and Art­icle 12 ap­ply by ana­logy.

³ The can­tons may al­low ex­cep­tions to the pro­hib­i­tions in para­graph 1. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall define the con­di­tions in more de­tail.

³ Re­load­ing am­muni­tion for per­son­al use is per­mit­ted.

¹ It is pro­hib­ited to modi­fy semi-auto­mat­ic fire­arms in­to auto­mat­ic fire­arms, al­ter or re­move weapon num­bers, and shorten small fire­arms.

² The can­tons may al­low ex­cep­tions. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil defines the con­di­tions in more de­tail.

¹ Hold­ers of weapons trad­ing per­mits are re­quired to main­tain re­cords on the man­u­fac­ture, modi­fic­a­tion, pro­cure­ment, sale or oth­er dis­tri­bu­tion of weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion and gun­powder, and on re­pairs that re-es­tab­lish the shoot­ing cap­ab­il­ity of fire­arms.

^1bis They are re­quired to give on­line no­tice with­in 20 days to the can­ton­al au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for op­er­at­ing the in­form­a­tion sys­tem (Art. 32a Abs. 2) of any pro­cure­ment, sale or oth­er dis­tri­bu­tion to an ac­quirer in Switzer­land.⁶⁶

^1ter The can­tons shall des­ig­nate an au­thor­ity that ac­cepts re­ports from hold­ers of weapons trad­ing per­mits of sus­pi­cious trans­ac­tions in­volving am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents.⁶⁷

² The re­cords and cop­ies of the weapon ac­quis­i­tion per­mits and ex­emp­tion per­mits (doc­u­ments) must be re­tained for ten years.

³ The doc­u­ments must be sub­mit­ted to the can­ton­al au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for op­er­at­ing the in­form­a­tion sys­tem (Art. 32a para. 2):

a.

on ex­piry of the re­ten­tion peri­od;

b.

on giv­ing up the trade; or

c.

on re­voc­a­tion or with­draw­al of the weapons trad­ing per­mit.

⁴ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall re­tain the doc­u­ments for 20 years and on ap­plic­a­tion grant ac­cess to the law en­force­ment ser­vices and ju­di­cial au­thor­it­ies of the can­tons and the Con­fed­er­a­tion for the pur­pose of ful­filling their stat­utory du­ties.

Hold­ers of weapons trad­ing per­mits and their em­ploy­ees are re­quired to dis­close to the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies all in­form­a­tion ne­ces­sary for prop­er con­trol.

¹ The ex­port, trans­it, broker­age to re­cip­i­ents abroad, and trade abroad from Switzer­land of weapons, weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents are gov­erned by:

a.

the le­gis­la­tion on war ma­ter­i­als if the goods are covered by this le­gis­la­tion;

b.

the le­gis­la­tion on goods con­trol if the goods are not covered by the le­gis­la­tion on war ma­ter­i­als.

² Art­icles 22b, 23, 25a and 25b re­main without pre­ju­dice.⁷⁰

¹ Any per­son who wishes to ex­port fire­arms, their es­sen­tial com­pon­ents or am­muni­tion to a Schen­gen state re­quires an ac­com­pa­ny­ing doc­u­ment from the Cent­ral Of­fice.

² An ac­com­pa­ny­ing doc­u­ment is not re­quired if a per­son wishes to ex­port to a Schen­gen state fire­arms, their es­sen­tial com­pon­ents or am­muni­tion that are also gov­erned by le­gis­la­tion on war ma­ter­i­als.

³ An ac­com­pa­ny­ing doc­u­ment is not is­sued if the end re­cip­i­ent is not au­thor­ised un­der the law of the coun­try of des­tin­a­tion to pos­sess the fire­arms, the es­sen­tial com­pon­ents or the am­muni­tion.

⁴ The ac­com­pa­ny­ing doc­u­ment con­tains all the rel­ev­ant in­form­a­tion on the trans­port of the fire­arms, the es­sen­tial com­pon­ents or the am­muni­tion to be ex­por­ted, as well as the ne­ces­sary in­form­a­tion for identi­fy­ing the per­sons in­volved. The doc­u­ment must ac­com­pany these ob­jects to the place of des­tin­a­tion.

⁵ The Cent­ral Of­fice shall trans­mit the avail­able in­form­a­tion to the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies of the states con­cerned with the ex­port of the fire­arms, the es­sen­tial com­pon­ents or the am­muni­tion.

The Fed­er­al Of­fice for Cus­toms and Bor­der Se­cur­ity (FO­CBS) shall make spot checks to ex­am­ine wheth­er the in­form­a­tion con­tained in the ac­com­pa­ny­ing note cor­res­ponds to the fire­arms, the es­sen­tial com­pon­ents or am­muni­tion be­ing ex­por­ted.

¹ Weapons, es­sen­tial and spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents brought in­to Switzer­land must be de­clared in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the Cus­toms Act of 18 March 2005⁷⁴.⁷⁵

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil defines the ex­cep­tions.

¹ Any per­son who wishes to bring weapons, es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ents, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents in­to Switzer­land on a com­mer­cial basis re­quires in ad­di­tion to a weapons trad­ing per­mit a per­mit in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 24a, 24b or 24c.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may make ex­cep­tions to the per­mit re­quire­ment for bring­ing knives in­to Switzer­land on a com­mer­cial basis.

³ The Cent­ral Of­fice is­sues the per­mit and lim­its its valid­ity.

⁴ The Cent­ral Of­fice shall in­form the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity of the per­mit hold­er’s busi­ness loc­a­tion about the weapons, es­sen­tial and spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents which have been com­mer­cially brought in­to Switzer­land.

¹ Any per­son who wishes to bring a single de­liv­ery of weapons, es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ents, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents in­to Switzer­land on a com­mer­cial basis re­quires a single-de­liv­ery per­mit; the weapons con­cerned must be clearly defined.

² Any per­son who has a single-de­liv­ery per­mit and has not giv­en cause for com­plaint for one year in con­nec­tion with bring­ing weapons, es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ents, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents in­to Switzer­land may ap­ply to have the single-de­liv­ery per­mit con­ver­ted in­to a gen­er­al per­mit in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 24b or 24c.

Any per­son who wishes to bring weapons oth­er than fire­arms, or am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents in­to Switzer­land on a reg­u­lar com­mer­cial basis re­quires a gen­er­al per­mit for weapons oth­er than fire­arms.

Any per­son who wishes to bring weapons, es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ents, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents in­to Switzer­land on a reg­u­lar com­mer­cial basis re­quires a gen­er­al per­mit for weapons, weapon com­pon­ents and am­muni­tion.

¹ Any per­son who wishes to bring weapons, es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ents, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents in­to Switzer­land on a non-com­mer­cial basis re­quires a per­mit. A per­mit is is­sued if the ap­plic­ant is au­thor­ised to ac­quire the ob­ject in ques­tion.

² The per­mit is is­sued by the Cent­ral Of­fice and is of lim­ited dur­a­tion. The per­mit au­thor­ises the hold­er to bring a max­im­um of three weapons or weapon com­pon­ents in­to Switzer­land sim­ul­tan­eously.⁸¹

^2bis The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines what form the per­mit ap­plic­a­tion shall take, what ad­di­tion­al doc­u­ments are re­quired, and how long the per­mit is val­id.⁸²

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may make ex­cep­tions to the per­mit re­quire­ment for bring­ing weapons oth­er than fire­arms in­to Switzer­land on a tem­por­ary basis.⁸³

⁴ The Cent­ral Of­fice shall no­ti­fy the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity at the per­mit hold­er’s place of res­id­ence of weapons, es­sen­tial and spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents that have been brought in­to Switzer­land on a non-com­mer­cial basis.

¹ Any per­son who wishes to bring fire­arms and their am­muni­tion tem­por­ar­ily in­to Switzer­land while trav­el­ling re­quires a per­mit in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 25. The per­mit may be is­sued for a max­im­um of one year and for one or more jour­neys. It may be re­newed for a max­im­um of one year at a time.⁸⁶

² A per­mit for bring­ing fire­arms from a Schen­gen state is only is­sued if they are re­gistered in a European Fire­arms Pass.⁸⁷ The per­mit must be re­cor­ded in the European Fire­arms Pass.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may make ex­cep­tions to the per­mit re­quire­ment for:

a.

hunters and tar­get shoot­ers;

b.

for­eign per­son­nel of dip­lo­mat­ic mis­sions, per­man­ent mis­sions to in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions, con­su­lar posts and spe­cial mis­sions;

c.

mem­bers of for­eign armed forces on in­ter­na­tion­al mis­sions or train­ing;

d.

gov­ern­ment se­cur­ity of­ficers on of­fi­cial vis­its;

e.⁸⁸

staff of for­eign bor­der con­trol au­thor­it­ies on op­er­a­tion­al de­ploy­ment with the Swiss bor­der pro­tec­tion au­thor­it­ies at the Schen­gen ex­tern­al bor­ders in Switzer­land;

f.⁸⁹

mem­bers of for­eign po­lice forces on in­ter­na­tion­al de­ploy­ment or train­ing.⁹⁰

⁴ The European Fire­arms Pass must be car­ried at all times while in Switzer­land and presen­ted to the au­thor­it­ies on re­quest.

¹ Any per­son who wishes to take fire­arms and their am­muni­tion tem­por­ar­ily to a Schen­gen state while trav­el­ling must ap­ply to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of their can­ton of res­id­ence for a European Fire­arms Pass.⁹²

² The European Fire­arms Pass is is­sued for weapons that the ap­plic­ant can cred­ibly claim to be au­thor­ised to pos­sess. It is val­id for a max­im­um of five years and may be ex­ten­ded for a max­im­um of two years at a time.

¹ Weapons, es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ents, am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents must be kept in a safe place and pro­tec­ted from ac­cess by un­au­thor­ised third per­sons.

² The loss of a weapon must be re­por­ted to the po­lice im­me­di­ately.

¹ Any per­son who car­ries a weapon in pub­licly ac­cess­ible places or who wishes to trans­port a weapon re­quires a per­mit to carry a weapon. The per­mit must be car­ried at all times and presen­ted to the po­lice or cus­toms au­thor­it­ies on re­quest. Art­icle 28 para­graph 1 re­mains without pre­ju­dice.

² A per­son is gran­ted a per­mit to carry a weapon if:

a.

they are not sub­ject to any of the re­stric­tions un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 2;

b.

they can plaus­ibly jus­ti­fy that they re­quire a weapon to pro­tect them­selves, oth­er per­sons or things from genu­ine danger;

c.

they have passed a test on hand­ling weapons and on know­ledge of the leg­al re­quire­ments for us­ing weapons; the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Justice and Po­lice is­sues ex­am­in­a­tion reg­u­la­tions.

³ The per­mit is is­sued by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of the can­ton of res­id­ence for a spe­cif­ic type of weapon and for a max­im­um of five years. It is val­id throughout Switzer­land and may be sub­ject to con­di­tions. Per­sons res­id­ent abroad ob­tain the per­mit from the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of the can­ton where they enter Switzer­land.

⁴ A per­mit is not re­quired by:

a.

hold­ers of a hunt­ing per­mit, hunt­ing in­spect­ors and game­keep­ers for car­ry­ing weapons while ex­er­cising their du­ties;

b.

par­ti­cipants of events at which weapons are car­ried in con­nec­tion with his­tor­ic events;

c.

par­ti­cipants of shoot­ing events in­volving air­soft weapons car­ry­ing these weapons on se­cured ter­rain;

d.

for­eign avi­ation se­cur­ity of­ficers on the ter­rit­ory of Swiss air­ports, provid­ing the for­eign au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for air traffic safety has a gen­er­al per­mit in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 27a;

e.⁹⁵

mem­bers of for­eign bor­der pro­tec­tion au­thor­it­ies who to­geth­er with mem­bers of the Swiss bor­der guard au­thor­it­ies are in­volved in op­er­a­tions at the ex­tern­al bor­ders of the Schen­gen area in Switzer­land.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the de­tails on is­su­ing per­mits to carry a weapon, es­pe­cially on is­su­ing per­mits to for­eign mem­bers of staff at dip­lo­mat­ic mis­sions, per­man­ent mis­sions of in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions, con­su­lar posts and spe­cial mis­sions.

¹ A gen­er­al per­mit may be is­sued to for­eign air­lines to per­form se­cur­ity du­ties on the ter­rit­ory of Swiss air­ports.

² A gen­er­al per­mit may be is­sued to the for­eign au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for avi­ation se­cur­ity to avert crim­in­al acts and pro­tect air pas­sen­gers on board air­craft.

³ A gen­er­al per­mit may only be is­sued if the for­eign au­thor­ity or for­eign air­line guar­an­tees that any per­son who car­ries out a func­tion in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 1 or 2:

a.

is au­thor­ised to carry a weapon un­der the law of the for­eign state con­cerned; and

b.

has ad­equate train­ing.

⁴ The gen­er­al per­mit reg­u­lates the places of de­ploy­ment, the type of weapons, co-op­er­a­tion with the loc­al au­thor­it­ies and the scope of se­cur­ity du­ties.

¹ A per­mit to carry a weapon is not re­quired for trans­port­ing weapons, in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

to and from courses, ex­er­cises and events by shoot­ing, hunt­ing or air­soft weapons clubs and by mil­it­ary or­gan­isa­tions or as­so­ci­ations;

b.

to and from an ar­moury;

c.

to and from the hold­er of a weapons trad­ing per­mit;

d.

to and from weapons-re­lated events;

e.

when chan­ging res­id­ence.

² Weapons and am­muni­tion must be kept sep­ar­ate when trans­port­ing.

It is pro­hib­ited to carry dan­ger­ous ob­jects in pub­licly ac­cess­ible places and to trans­port such ob­jects in vehicles if:

a.

it is not plaus­ible that car­ry­ing or trans­port­ing the ob­jects for their in­ten­ded use or main­ten­ance is jus­ti­fied; and

b.

the im­pres­sion arises that the ob­jects are go­ing to be used im­prop­erly, in par­tic­u­lar to in­tim­id­ate, threaten or in­jure people.

Ex­emp­tion per­mits for the trans­fer of pos­ses­sion, ac­quis­i­tion, broker­age for re­cip­i­ents in Switzer­land and bring­ing in­to Switzer­land of ob­jects spe­cified in Art­icle 5 para­graph 2 may only be is­sued if:

a.

there are le­git­im­ate grounds for do­ing so,

b.

no im­ped­i­ments un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 2 ex­ist; and

c.

the spe­cial re­quire­ments of this Act are met.

² Le­git­im­ate grounds are in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

pro­fes­sion­al re­quire­ments;

b.

use for in­dus­tri­al pur­poses;

c.

com­pens­at­ing for phys­ic­al han­di­caps;

d.

col­lect­ing

¹ Ex­emp­tion per­mits for the trans­fer of pos­ses­sion, ac­quis­i­tion, broker­age for re­cip­i­ents in Switzer­land, bring­ing in­to Switzer­land and pos­ses­sion of ob­jects spe­cified in Art­icle 5 para­graph 1 may only be is­sued if:

a.

there are le­git­im­ate grounds for do­ing so;

b.

no im­ped­i­ments un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 2 ex­ist; and

c.

the spe­cial re­quire­ments of this Act are met.

² Le­git­im­ate grounds are in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

pro­fes­sion­al re­quire­ments, in par­tic­u­lar with re­gard to car­ry­ing out pro­tec­tion du­ties, such as pro­tect­ing per­sons, crit­ic­al in­fra­struc­ture or the trans­port of valu­ables;

b.

re­cre­ation­al tar­get shoot­ing;

c.

col­lect­ing;

d.

na­tion­al de­fence re­quire­ments;

e.

edu­ca­tion­al, cul­tur­al, re­search or his­tor­ic­al pur­poses.

³ Ex­emp­tion per­mits for shoot­ing in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 5 para­graphs 3 and 4 may be is­sued if there are no im­ped­i­ments un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 2 and suit­able meas­ures are taken to guar­an­tee safety.

¹ The is­sue of ex­emp­tion per­mits for the pur­pose of re­cre­ation­al tar­get shoot­ing is lim­ited to fire­arms and es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ents in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 5 para­graph 1 let­ters b and c and to spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents and weapon ac­cessor­ies that are genu­inely re­quired for this pur­pose.

² Ex­emp­tion per­mits are only is­sued to per­sons who prove to the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity that they:

a.

are mem­bers of a shoot­ing club; or

b.

they use their fire­arm reg­u­larly for re­cre­ation­al tar­get shoot­ing without be­ing a mem­ber of a shoot­ing club.

³ Proof in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 2 must be provided after 5 and after 10 years.

¹ Ex­emp­tion per­mits may only be is­sued to col­lect­ors if the per­sons or in­sti­tu­tions con­cerned prove that they have taken suit­able pre­cau­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 26 to store the col­lec­tion safely.

² Col­lect­ors and mu­seums must:

a.

keep a list of all fire­arms in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 5 para­graph 1 that are in their pos­ses­sion; the list must be kept up-to-date;

b.

be able to present the list and the re­lated ex­emp­tion per­mits to the au­thor­it­ies on re­quest.

¹ The can­ton­al ex­ec­ut­ive bod­ies are au­thor­ised, in the pres­ence of the per­son hold­ing a per­mit un­der this Act or a per­son rep­res­ent­ing them, to:

a.

check com­pli­ance with the con­di­tions and re­quire­ments linked to the per­mit;

b.

vis­it the busi­ness premises of the hold­er of a weapons trad­ing per­mit dur­ing the nor­mal hours of busi­ness without pri­or no­tice and in­spect the rel­ev­ant files.

² They shall seize in­crim­in­at­ing evid­ence.

³ Hold­ers of a weapons trad­ing per­mits are sub­ject to con­trol and in­spec­tion as defined in para­graph 1 at reg­u­lar in­ter­vals.

¹ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall with­draw a per­mit if:

a.

the re­quire­ments that led to the per­mit be­ing is­sued are no longer ful­filled;

b.

the con­di­tions at­tached to the per­mit are no longer ful­filled.

² ...¹⁰⁷

¹ An au­thor­ity that re­fuses to is­sue a per­mit shall no­ti­fy the Cent­ral Of­fice of its re­fus­al and state the reas­ons.

² An au­thor­ity that with­draws a per­mit shall no­ti­fy the au­thor­ity that is­sued it and the Cent­ral Of­fice of its with­draw­al.

Per­sons bound by of­fi­cial or pro­fes­sion­al secrecy are au­thor­ised to no­ti­fy the com­pet­ent can­ton­al and fed­er­al po­lice and ju­di­cial au­thor­it­ies of any per­son who:

a.

uses weapons to en­danger them­selves or oth­ers;

b.

uses weapons to threaten them­selves or third parties.

¹ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall seize:

a.

weapons car­ried by per­sons who do not have au­thor­isa­tion;

b.

weapons, es­sen­tial and spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents from per­sons who are sub­ject to an im­ped­i­ment un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 2 or who are not au­thor­ised to ac­quire or pos­sess them;

c.

dan­ger­ous ob­jects that are im­prop­erly car­ried;

d.¹¹¹

fire­arms, their es­sen­tial com­pon­ents or ac­cessor­ies that are not marked in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 18a;

e.¹¹²

every ele­ment­ary pack­age of am­muni­tion that is not marked in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 18b.

f.¹¹³

high ca­pa­city load­ing devices and the re­lated fire­arm that are in the pos­ses­sion of per­sons who are not au­thor­ised to ac­quire or pos­sess the same.

² If the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity seizes weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, high ca­pa­city load­ing devices and the re­lated fire­arm, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents, or dan­ger­ous ob­jects from a per­son who is not au­thor­ised to own them, it shall re­turn these ob­jects to the per­son who is au­thor­ised to own them provid­ing no im­ped­i­ment in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 8 para­graph 2 ex­ists.¹¹⁴

^2bis If the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity seizes fire­arms in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 5 para­graph 1 let­ters b–d that are not re­gistered in the can­ton­al in­form­a­tion sys­tem on the ac­quis­i­tion of fire­arms in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 32apara­graph 2, the law­ful pos­ses­sion of which has not be re­por­ted in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 42b or for which no proof has been provided in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 28d para­graph 3, the hold­er must sub­mit an ap­plic­a­tion for an ex­emp­tion per­mit un­der Art­icles 28c–28e or trans­fer pos­ses­sion of the fire­arms to an au­thor­ised per­son.¹¹⁵

^2ter If the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity seizes high ca­pa­city load­ing devices and the re­lated fire­arm, the hold­er must sub­mit an ap­plic­a­tion for an ex­emp­tion per­mit for the fire­arm un­der Art­icles 28c–28e or trans­fer pos­ses­sion of the fire­arms to an au­thor­ised per­son.¹¹⁶

³ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall or­der the for­feit­ure of the seized ob­jects if:

a.

there is a danger of them be­ing used im­prop­erly, in par­tic­u­lar if per­sons have been threatened or in­jured with such ob­jects;

b.

they are ob­jects that are defined in para­graph 1 let­ters d or e and have been man­u­fac­tured or brought in­to Switzer­land after 28 Ju­ly 2010;¹¹⁷

c.¹¹⁸

pos­ses­sion of the ob­jects has not been trans­ferred to an au­thor­ised per­son or the ap­plic­a­tion in terms of para­graphs 2^bis or 2^ter has not been sub­mit­ted or has been re­jec­ted.¹¹⁹

⁴ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall no­ti­fy the Cent­ral Of­fice for Weapons about the per­man­ent con­fis­ca­tion, to­geth­er with the ex­act de­scrip­tion of the weapon.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the pro­ced­ure if it is not pos­sible to re­turn the ob­jects.

The can­tons are ob­liged to take re­ceipt of weapons, es­sen­tial and spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents free of charge. They may charge hold­ers of a weapons trad­ing per­mit a fee for tak­ing re­ceipt of these ob­jects.

¹ The can­tons shall des­ig­nate a re­port­ing of­fice. They may del­eg­ate the tasks of this of­fice to na­tion­al-level or­gan­isa­tions work­ing in the field of weapons.

² The re­port­ing of­fice per­forms the tasks as­signed to it un­der Art­icles 11 para­graphs 3 and 4, 32k and 42a. It provides the law en­force­ment ser­vices of the can­tons and the Con­fed­er­a­tion with the re­quired in­form­a­tion on re­quest.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate a cent­ral of­fice to provide the en­for­cing au­thor­it­ies with sup­port.

² Be­sides the man­date un­der Art­icles 9a para­graph 2, 22b, 24 para­graphs 3 and 4, 25 para­graphs 3 and 5, 31d, 32a, 32c and 32j para­graph 1, the cent­ral of­fice also per­forms the fol­low­ing tasks in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

it ad­vises the en­for­cing au­thor­it­ies;

b.

it co-or­din­ates their activ­it­ies;

b^bis.¹²³ it pro­cesses re­quests from Swiss or for­eign au­thor­it­ies to trace fire­arms, their es­sen­tial com­pon­ents or ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents, and for­wards to for­eign au­thor­it­ies ap­pro­pri­ate re­quests by Swiss au­thor­it­ies; it is the con­tact point for tech­nic­al and op­er­at­ive mat­ters con­cern­ing trace­ab­il­ity;

c.

it is the cent­ral re­cep­tion centre and re­port­ing of­fice for the ex­change of in­form­a­tion with oth­er Schen­gen states;

d.

it for­wards to the can­ton of res­id­ence re­ports on per­sons res­id­ent in Switzer­land who have ac­quired a fire­arm in a Schen­gen state;

e.

it com­piles re­com­mend­a­tions for the uni­form ap­plic­a­tion of weapons le­gis­la­tion and for grant­ing ex­emp­tion per­mits;

f.

it may grant for­eign air­lines a gen­er­al per­mit to per­form se­cur­ity-re­lated du­ties in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 27a.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the de­tails of the cent­ral of­fice’s activ­it­ies.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons may op­er­ate a na­tion­al co-or­din­a­tion unit for the cent­ral ana­lys­is of traces of fire­arms as defined un­der Art­icle 4 para­graph 1 let­ters a and f.

² The na­tion­al co-or­din­a­tion unit is op­er­ated by the cent­ral of­fice.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the fees for:

a.

pro­cessing per­mits, con­duct­ing ex­am­in­a­tions and is­su­ing cer­ti­fic­ates un­der this Act;

b.¹²⁶

stor­ing seized weapons and dan­ger­ous ob­jects car­ried im­prop­erly;

c.¹²⁷

meas­ures con­cern­ing the seizure, def­in­ite con­fis­ca­tion and use of ob­jects defined un­der Art­icle 4.

¹ The cent­ral of­fice op­er­ates the fol­low­ing data­bases:

a.

a data­base on the ac­quis­i­tion of weapons by for­eign na­tion­als who do not have a set­tle­ment per­mit (DEWA data­base);

b.

a data­base on the ac­quis­i­tion of weapons by per­sons res­id­ent in an­oth­er Schen­gen state (DEWS data­base);

c.

a data­base on the with­draw­al and re­fus­al of per­mits, and the seizure of weapons (DEBB­WA data­base);

d.

a data­base on the trans­fer of army weapons to private own­er­ship, and on con­scripts and army per­son­nel who are sub­ject to an im­ped­i­ment to pos­sess­ing a per­son­al weapon un­der Art­icle 113 of the Armed Forces Act of 3 Feb­ru­ary 1995¹³¹ (DAWA data­base);

e.

a data­base on mark­ings to trace fire­arms and their am­muni­tion (DARUE data­base).

² Every can­ton shall op­er­ate an elec­tron­ic in­form­a­tion sys­tem on the ac­quis­i­tion and pos­ses­sion of fire­arms.

³ In ad­di­tion to the in­form­a­tion sys­tem un­der para­graph 2, they may also op­er­ate a har­mon­ised com­mon in­form­a­tion sys­tem on the ac­quis­i­tion and pos­ses­sion of fire­arms and des­ig­nate a body that is re­spons­ible for mer­ging and man­aging the data.

⁴ The in­form­a­tion sys­tems un­der para­graphs 1 and 3 may be con­sul­ted by users in ac­cord­ance with their ac­cess rights by means of a single search re­quest.

⁵ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may provide sup­port for meas­ures to har­mon­ise the in­form­a­tion sys­tems defined un­der para­graphs 1–3.

⁶ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil defines the con­di­tions that must be ful­filled in or­der to ob­tain fund­ing from the Con­fed­er­a­tion un­der para­graph 5.

¹ The au­thor­it­ies who pro­cess data on­line in the in­form­a­tion sys­tems defined in Art­icle 32a para­graphs 2 and 3 shall no­ti­fy the cent­ral of­fice of the OASI num­bers in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 50c of the Fed­er­al Act of 20 Decem­ber 1946¹³³ on Old-Age and Sur­viv­ors In­sur­ance to be used in the DEBB­WA and DAWA data­bases.

¹ The DEWA and DEWS data­bases con­tain the fol­low­ing data:

a.

the per­son­al data and re­gister num­ber of the per­son ac­quir­ing the weapon;

b.

the type of weapon, man­u­fac­turer, de­scrip­tion, cal­ibre, weapon num­ber and date of trans­fer;

c.

the date of re­gis­tra­tion in the data­base.

² The DEBB­WA data­base con­tains the fol­low­ing data:

a.

the per­son­al data and OASI num­ber¹³⁵ of any per­son whose per­mit has been with­drawn, who has been re­fused a per­mit, or from whom weapons have been seized;

b.¹³⁶

the cir­cum­stances lead­ing to the with­draw­al or re­fus­al of the per­mit;

c.

the type and mod­el of weapon and its num­ber, and the date of its trans­fer;

d.

the cir­cum­stances lead­ing to seizure;

e.

of­fi­cial rul­ings on seized weapons;

f.

the date of re­gis­tra­tion in the data­base.

³ The DAWA data­base con­tains the fol­low­ing data:

a.

the per­son­al data and OASI num­ber of any per­son who takes over pos­ses­sion of a weapon on leav­ing the army;

b.

the per­son­al data and OASI num­ber of any per­son whose per­son­al or bor­rowed weapon has been taken from them or con­fis­cated from them un­der le­gis­la­tion on the armed forces;

c.

the per­son­al data and OASI num­ber of any per­son who has not been giv­en a weapon due to an im­ped­i­ment con­cern­ing the trans­fer of a per­son­al army weapon un­der Art­icle 113 of the Armed Forces Act of 3 Feb­ru­ary 1995¹³⁷;

d.

the type and mod­el of weapon and its num­ber, and the date of its trans­fer or con­fis­ca­tion;

e.

the cir­cum­stances lead­ing to a weapon not be­ing giv­en to, be­ing taken from, or be­ing con­fis­cated from a per­son;

f.

of­fi­cial rul­ings on seized weapons;

g.

the date of re­gis­tra­tion in the data­base.

⁴ The DARUE data­base con­tains the fol­low­ing data:

a.

in­form­a­tion on mark­ing un­der Art­icles 18a and 18b;

b.

oth­er re­cog­ni­tion marks of the man­u­fac­turer and im­port­er;

c.

the con­tact data of the man­u­fac­turer, sup­pli­er and im­port­er;

d.

in­form­a­tion on the per­mit al­low­ing the weapon to be brought in­to Switzer­land.

⁵ The in­form­a­tion sys­tem un­der Art­icle 32a para­graph 2 con­tains the fol­low­ing data:

a.

the per­son­al data and re­gis­tra­tion num­ber of the per­son ac­quir­ing and the per­son trans­fer­ring pos­ses­sion of a weapon;

b.¹³⁸

the type of weapon or es­sen­tial weapons com­pon­ent, man­u­fac­turer, de­scrip­tion, cal­ibre, weapon num­ber, date of trans­fer and date of de­struc­tion;

c.

the per­son­al data of the hold­er of the European Fire­arms Pass un­der Art­icle 25band the de­tails con­tained therein;

d.

the per­son­al data of the hold­er of a per­mit to carry a weapon un­der Art­icle 27 and the de­tails con­tained therein.

⁶ The har­mon­ised com­mon in­form­a­tion sys­tem un­der Art­icle 32a para­graph 3 shall con­tain the fol­low­ing data:

a.

the per­son­al data of the per­son ac­quir­ing a weapon;

b.

the type of weapon, man­u­fac­turer, de­scrip­tion, cal­ibre, weapon num­ber and date of trans­fer;

c.

the per­son­al data of the hold­er of a European Fire­arms Pass un­der Art­icle 25band the de­tails con­tained therein;

d.

the per­son­al data of the hold­er of a per­mit to carry a weapon un­der Art­icle 27 and the de­tails con­tained therein.

⁷ The in­form­a­tion sys­tems un­der Art­icle 32a para­graphs 2 and 3 may also con­tain the OASI num­ber.

¹ All data con­tained in the DEWA, DEBB­WA and DARUE data­bases may be dis­closed to the fol­low­ing au­thor­it­ies to en­able them to ful­fil their stat­utory du­ties:

a.

the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies of the can­ton of res­id­ence or home coun­try;

b.

oth­er fed­er­al and can­ton­al ju­di­cial and po­lice au­thor­it­ies, and the au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for en­for­cing this Act;

c.

for­eign po­lice, law en­force­ment and se­cur­ity ser­vices, as well as Euro­pol and IN­TER­POL of­fices.

² Fed­er­al and can­ton­al law en­force­ment ser­vices, can­ton­al po­lice au­thor­it­ies and the cus­toms au­thor­it­ies may ac­cess all data con­tained in the DEWA, DEBB­WA, DAWA and DARUE data­bases by means of an on­line ac­cess pro­ced­ure.

³ The mil­it­ary au­thor­it­ies and the au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for im­ple­ment­ing the Pre­curs­ors Act of 25 Septem­ber 2020¹⁴⁰ may ac­cess all data con­tained in the DEBB­WA and DAWA data­base by means of an on­line ac­cess pro­ced­ure.¹⁴¹

⁴ The Cent­ral Of­fice shall no­ti­fy the com­pet­ent de­part­ments of the mil­it­ary au­thor­it­ies im­me­di­ately of any mem­ber of the armed forces or per­son re­quired to en­list who is newly re­gistered in the DEBB­WA data­base and whose per­mit has been with­drawn, who has been re­fused a per­mit, or whose weapon has been seized. No­ti­fic­a­tion is sent to the In­teg­rated Re­sources Man­age­ment In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (PSN) through an auto­mated pro­cess.

⁵ The Cent­ral Of­fice shall no­ti­fy the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of the can­ton of res­id­ence im­me­di­ately of any mem­ber of the armed forces or per­son re­quired to en­list who is newly re­gistered in the DAWA data­base and whose per­son­al weapon or bor­rowed weapon has been taken from them or con­fis­cated, or who has not be giv­en a per­son­al or bor­rowed weapon. No­ti­fic­a­tion is sent to the in­form­a­tion sys­tems of the com­pet­ent can­ton of res­id­ence un­der Art­icle 32a para­graphs 2 and 3 through an auto­mated pro­cess.

⁶ Data from the DEWS data­base must be for­war­ded to the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies of the coun­try of res­id­ence of the per­son con­cerned.

⁷ Data from the in­form­a­tion sys­tem un­der Art­icle 32apara­graph 3 may be dis­closed to fed­er­al and can­ton­al law en­force­ment ser­vices and ju­di­cial au­thor­it­ies, can­ton­al po­lice ser­vices, the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Po­lice (fed­pol), the cus­toms au­thor­it­ies and the com­pet­ent de­part­ments of the mil­it­ary au­thor­it­ies by means of an on­line ac­cess pro­ced­ure to en­able them to ful­fil their stat­utory du­ties.

⁸ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the scope of data dis­clos­ure to the fed­er­al and can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies. It also reg­u­lates the con­trol, stor­age, cor­rec­tion and de­le­tion of the data.

Dis­clos­ing per­son­al data to the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies of Schen­gen states is equi­val­ent to dis­clos­ing per­son­al data between fed­er­al bod­ies.

¹ Per­son­al data may only be dis­closed to third states if they can guar­an­tee an ad­equate level of data pro­tec­tion.

² If a third state does not guar­an­tee an ad­equate level of data pro­tec­tion, per­son­al data may be dis­closed in spe­cial cases if:

a.

the per­son con­cerned has con­sen­ted bey­ond any doubt; if the per­son­al data or per­son­al­ity pro­files are par­tic­u­larly sens­it­ive, the per­son must give their ex­pli­cit con­sent;

b.

dis­clos­ure is ne­ces­sary to pro­tect the life or phys­ic­al in­teg­rity of the per­son con­cerned; or

c.

dis­clos­ure is ne­ces­sary to safe­guard over­rid­ing pub­lic in­terests or to de­term­ine, ex­er­cise or as­sert leg­al rights in court.

³ Be­sides the cases men­tioned in para­graph 2, per­son­al data may also be dis­closed in spe­cial cases if suf­fi­cient guar­an­tees en­sure ad­equate pro­tec­tion of the per­son con­cerned.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the scope and the terms of the guar­an­tees to be provided.

The right to in­form­a­tion is based on the fed­er­al or can­ton­al data pro­tec­tion pro­vi­sions.¹⁴⁵ The con­trol­ler of the data file also provides in­form­a­tion on avail­able de­tails con­cern­ing the source of the data.

¹ ...¹⁴⁸

² The com­pet­ent de­part­ments of the mil­it­ary au­thor­it­ies shall no­ti­fy the Cent­ral Of­fice of:

a.

the iden­tity and OASI num­ber of any per­son to whom own­er­ship of a weapon is trans­ferred on leav­ing the army, and of the type of weapon and weapon num­ber;

b.

the iden­tity and OASI num­ber of any per­son whose per­son­al weapon or bor­rowed weapon has been taken from them or con­fis­cated, or who has not be giv­en a per­son­al or bor­rowed weapon un­der mil­it­ary le­gis­la­tion.¹⁴⁹

The com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies and re­port­ing of­fices shall provide the Cent­ral Of­fice with in­form­a­tion avail­able to them on:

a.

the iden­tity of any per­son without a set­tle­ment per­mit in Switzer­land who has ac­quired a weapon, or an es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ent in Switzer­land;

b.

the iden­tity of any per­son res­id­ent in an­oth­er Schen­gen state who has ac­quired a fire­arm, or an es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ent in Switzer­land;

c.

the weapons, or es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents ac­quired.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully car­ries out any of the fol­low­ing acts is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty:

a.¹⁵²

of­fers for ac­quis­i­tion, trans­fers pos­ses­sion of, brokers, ac­quires, pos­sesses, man­u­fac­tures, al­ters, mod­i­fies, car­ries, ex­ports to a Schen­gen state or brings in­to Switzer­land weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents un­law­fully;

a^bis.¹⁵³ re­moves, ef­faces, al­ters or adds to the pre­scribed mark­ing of fire­arms, their es­sen­tial com­pon­ents or ac­cessor­ies in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 18a un­law­fully;

b.

brings in­to Switzer­land, as the hold­er of a weapons trad­ing per­mit, weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents without re­gis­ter­ing these ob­jects or de­clar­ing them cor­rectly;

c.

ob­tains a weapons trad­ing per­mit un­der false pre­tences by provid­ing in­cor­rect or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion;

d.

vi­ol­ates their ob­lig­a­tions un­der Art­icle 21;

e.

as the hold­er of a weapons trad­ing per­mit fails to keep weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents in a safe place (Art. 17 para. 2 let. d);

f.¹⁵⁴

as the hold­er of a weapons trad­ing per­mit:

1.

man­u­fac­tures or brings in­to Switzer­land fire­arms, their es­sen­tial com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies or am­muni­tion without mark­ing these ob­jects in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 18a or 18b,

2.

of­fers for ac­quis­i­tion, ac­quires, trans­fers pos­ses­sion of or brokers fire­arms, their es­sen­tial com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies or am­muni­tion that are not marked in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 18a or 18b,

3.

of­fers for ac­quis­i­tion, ac­quires, trans­fers pos­ses­sion of or brokers fire­arms, their es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies or am­muni­tion that have been brought in­to Switzer­land un­law­fully;

g.

as a per­son in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 7 para­graph 1, of­fers for ac­quis­i­tion, trans­fers pos­ses­sion of or brokers weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents and who is not able to pro­duce an ex­emp­tion per­mit in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 7 para­graph 2.

² If the per­pet­rat­or acts neg­li­gently, the pen­alty is a fine. The pen­alty may be waived in minor cases.

³ Any per­son who wil­fully and on a com­mer­cial basis un­law­fully:

a.¹⁵⁵

of­fers for ac­quis­i­tion, trans­fers pos­ses­sion of, brokers, man­u­fac­tures, re­pairs, al­ters, mod­i­fies, takes to a Schen­gen state or brings in­to Switzer­land weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents;

b.¹⁵⁶

...

c.¹⁵⁷

of­fers for ac­quis­i­tion, ac­quires, trans­fers pos­ses­sion of or brokers fire­arms, their es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies or am­muni­tion that have not been marked in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 18a or 18b, or that have been brought in­to Switzer­land un­law­fully;

is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

¹ Any per­son who car­ries out any of the fol­low­ing acts is li­able to a fine:

a.

ob­tains, at­tempts to ob­tain or is com­pli­cit in ob­tain­ing un­der false pre­tences a per­mit to ac­quire or carry a weapon by provid­ing in­cor­rect or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion, without ful­filling the ele­ments of an of­fence un­der Art­icle 33 para­graph 1 let­ter a;

b.

uses a fire­arm un­law­fully to shoot (Art. 5 para. 3 and 4);

c.

dis­reg­ards due di­li­gence in trans­fer­ring the pos­ses­sion of weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents (Art. 10a and 15 para. 2);

d.

does not ful­fil his or her du­ties un­der Art­icle 11 para­graphs 1 and 2, or provides in­cor­rect or in­com­plete con­trac­tu­al in­form­a­tion;

e.

as a private in­di­vidu­al does not keep weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents in a safe place (Art. 26 para. 1);

f.

as a private in­di­vidu­al brings weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents, weapon ac­cessor­ies, am­muni­tion or am­muni­tion com­pon­ents in­to Switzer­land without re­gis­ter­ing or cor­rectly de­clar­ing these ob­jects, or fails to re­gister them while trav­el­ling in trans­it;

g.

does not re­port the loss of weapons to the po­lice im­me­di­ately (Art. 26
para. 2);

h.

does not carry on them their per­mit to carry a weapon (Art. 27 para. 1);

i.

does not ful­fil the no­ti­fic­a­tion re­quire­ments un­der Art­icles 7a para­graph 1, 9c, 11 para­graphs 3 and 4, 11a para­graph 2, 17 para­graph 7 or 42 para­graph 5;

j.

does not ful­fil his or her ob­lig­a­tions as an heir un­der Art­icles 6a, 8 para­graph 2^bis or 11 para­graph 4;

k.

uses pro­hib­ited forms of sup­ply (Art. 7b);

l.¹⁵⁹

ob­tains the ac­com­pa­ny­ing note un­der false pre­tences by provid­ing in­cor­rect or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion;

l^bis.¹⁶⁰

ex­ports fire­arms, their es­sen­tial com­pon­ents or am­muni­tion (Art. 22b para. 1) to a Schen­gen state without en­clos­ing the ac­com­pa­ny­ing note;

m.

on entry from a Schen­gen state car­ries fire­arms, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents or am­muni­tion without a European Fire­arms Pass (Art. 25a para. 4);

n.

trans­ports a fire­arm without keep­ing weapon and am­muni­tion sep­ar­ate (Art. 28 para. 2);

o.

in any oth­er way wil­fully vi­ol­ates a pro­vi­sion of this Act, whose con­tra­ven­tion the Fed­er­al Coun­cil has de­clared pun­ish­able in the im­ple­ment­ing reg­u­la­tions.

² The pen­alty may be waived in minor cases.

For of­fences com­mit­ted with­in a busi­ness, Art­icles 6 and 7 of the Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law Act of 22 March 1974¹⁶¹ ap­ply.

¹ The can­tons pro­sec­ute and judge of­fences. The Con­fed­er­a­tion sup­ports the co-or­din­a­tion of law en­force­ment between the can­tons.

² The FO­CBS ex­am­ines and judges con­tra­ven­tions against this Act with re­gard to trav­el­ling in trans­it and bring­ing weapons in­to Switzer­land.¹⁶²

³ If a con­tra­ven­tion un­der para­graph 2 is also an of­fence un­der cus­toms or VAT law, the pen­alty for the more ser­i­ous of­fence is ap­plic­able; the pen­alty may be in­creased ap­pro­pri­ately.

¹ The can­tons shall en­force this Act where it does not de­clare the Con­fed­er­a­tion to be re­spons­ible.

² They shall is­sue reg­u­la­tions for can­ton­al en­force­ment and no­ti­fy the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies of these reg­u­la­tions.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions for this Act.

² In these pro­vi­sions, it reg­u­lates, in par­tic­u­lar, the form and con­tent of the per­mits.

³ It de­term­ines which au­thor­it­ies enter data in­to the fed­er­al data­bases.¹⁶⁵

⁴ It may del­eg­ate im­ple­ment­a­tion tasks to the FO­CBS.¹⁶⁶

¹ Any per­son who is per­mit­ted to carry a weapon or trade in weapons un­der ex­ist­ing can­ton­al law and wishes to re­tain this right must ap­ply for the ap­pro­pri­ate per­mit with­in one year of this Act com­ing in­to force.

² The right re­mains in force un­til a de­cision is reached on the ap­plic­a­tion.

³ Im­port, ex­port and trans­it per­mits un­der the War Ma­ter­i­als Act of 30 June 1972¹⁶⁸ and 13 Decem­ber 1996¹⁶⁹ re­tain their valid­ity.

⁴ Any per­son who un­der ex­ist­ing law has a per­mit for the com­mer­cial im­port, ex­port or trans­it of weapons, es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ents, am­muni­tion and am­muni­tion com­pon­ents may con­tin­ue to bring these ob­jects in­to Switzer­land or ex­port them on the basis of this per­mit.¹⁷⁰

⁵ Any per­son who is already in pos­ses­sion of weapons, es­sen­tial or spe­cially de­signed weapon com­pon­ents in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 5 para­graph 2, or weapon ac­cessor­ies in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 5 para­graph 1 let­ter g must re­gister them with the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for is­su­ing ex­emp­tion per­mits with­in three months of this pro­vi­sion com­ing in­to force.¹⁷¹

⁶ An ap­plic­a­tion for an ex­emp­tion per­mit may be sub­mit­ted with­in six months of the ban un­der Art­icle 5 para­graph 2 com­ing in­to force. Any per­son who already has a val­id ex­emp­tion per­mit for ac­quir­ing weapons is ex­empt from this pro­vi­sion. Any per­son who does not wish to sub­mit an ap­plic­a­tion, must trans­fer pos­ses­sion of the ob­jects to an au­thor­ised per­son with­in six months of the ban com­ing in­to force.¹⁷²

⁷ If the ap­plic­a­tion for an ex­emp­tion per­mit is re­jec­ted, the ob­jects must be trans­ferred to the pos­ses­sion of an au­thor­ised per­son with­in four months of the ap­plic­a­tion be­ing re­jec­ted.¹⁷³

¹ Any per­son who is already in pos­ses­sion of a fire­arm or an es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ent in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 10 must re­gister the ob­ject with the re­port­ing of­fice of the can­ton of res­id­ence with­in one year of the amend­ment of 17 Decem­ber 2004 com­ing in­to force.

² The fol­low­ing ob­jects do not have be re­gistered in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1:

a.

fire­arms or es­sen­tial weapon com­pon­ents that were ac­quired at the time by the hold­er of a weapons trad­ing per­mit;

b.

Swiss army fire­arms whose own­er­ship was trans­ferred at the time by the mil­it­ary au­thor­it­ies.

¹ Per­sons in pos­ses­sion of a fire­arm in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 5 para­graph 1 let­ters b–d when the Amend­ment of 28 Septem­ber 2018 to this Act comes in­to force must no­ti­fy the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies in their can­ton of res­id­ence of their law­ful pos­ses­sion of the weapon with­in three years.

² No­ti­fic­a­tion is not re­quired if the fire­arm is already re­gistered in a can­ton­al in­form­a­tion sys­tem on the ac­quis­i­tion of fire­arms in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 32apara­graph 2.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Janu­ary 1999¹⁷⁶