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

The Federal Assembly of the Swiss Confederation,

on the basis of Article 107 paragraph 1 and Article 118 paragraph 2 letter a
of the Federal Constitution1,2
and having considered the Dispatch of the Federal Council dated 24 January 19963,

decrees:

1 SR 101

2 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

3 BBl 1996 I 1053

Chapter 1 General Provisions

Section 1 Subject Matter, Scope of Application and Definitions

Art. 1 Purpose and subject matter 4  

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.

4 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 2 Scope of application 5  

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 32abis, 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.

5 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

6 Amended by No I of the FA of 23 Dec. 2011, in force since 1 Jan. 2013 (AS 201245516775; BBl 2011 4555).

Art. 3 Right to acquire, possess and carry weapons  

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

Art. 4 Definitions 7  

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.

7 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

8 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

9 Ori­gin­ally para. 2bis. In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 11 Dec. 2009 (Ad­apt­a­tion of the Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen Ac­quis), in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 20102823; BBl 2009 3649).

Section 2 General Bans and Restrictions

Art. 5 Bans relating to weapons, weapon components and weapon accessories 10  

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.

10 Amended by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

Art. 6 Bans and restrictions relating to ammunition 11  

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.

11 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 6a Inheritance 12  

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.

12 In­ser­ted by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin (AS 2008 447; BBl 20045965). Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 2006 2713).

Art. 6b Official attestation 13  

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.

13 In­ser­ted by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

14 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art.7 Ban for nationals of certain states 15  

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.

15 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 7a Implementation 16  

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.

16 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 7b Prohibited forms of supply 17  

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.

17 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Chapter 2 Acquisition and Possession of Weapons and Essential Weapon Components 18

18 Amended by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Adoption and Implementation of the Bilateral Agreements between Switzerland and the EU on the Association with Schengen and Dublin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

Section 1 Acquisition of Weapons and Essential Weapon Components 19

19 Amended by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Adoption and Implementation of the Bilateral Agreements between Switzerland and the EU on the Association with Schengen and Dublin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

Art. 8 Duty to obtain a weapon acquisition permit 20  

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

20 Amended by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

21 Amended by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

22 In­ser­ted by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

23 Amended by An­nex No 17 of the FA of 19 Dec. 2008 (Adult pro­tec­tion, law of per­sons and law of chil­dren), in force since 1 Jan. 2013 (AS 2011 725; BBl 2006 7001).

24 Amended by An­nex 1 No 11 of the Crim­in­al Re­cords Re­gister Act of 17 June 2016, in force since 23 Jan. 2023 (AS 2022 600; BBl 2014 5713).

25 SR 330

26 In­ser­ted by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

27 Re­pealed by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, with ef­fect from 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

Art. 9 Jurisdiction 28  

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.

28 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

29 SR 120

Art. 9a Official attestation 30  

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

2Where 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.

30 In­ser­ted by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

31 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 9b Validity of the weapon acquisition permit 32  

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.

32 In­ser­ted by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

Art. 9c Notification by the person transferring possession 33  

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.

33 In­ser­ted by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

Art.10 Exceptions to the duty to obtain a weapon acquisition permit 34  

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.

34Amended by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

35 SR 510.10

36 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 10a Verification by the person transferring possession of a weapon 37  

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

37 In­ser­ted by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

38 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art.11 Written contract 39  

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.

39 Amended by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

40 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

41 Amended by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

42 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007 (AS 2008 5499; BBl 20062713). Amended by No 6 of the FA of 19 March 2010 on the Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Frame­work De­cision 2008/977/JI on the pro­tec­tion of per­son­al data pro­cessed in the frame­work of po­lice and ju­di­cial co­oper­a­tion in crim­in­al mat­ters, in force since 1 Dec. 2010 (AS 2010 33873417; BBl 2009 6749).

43 Now: Art 10 para. 1 and 2.

44 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

45 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 11a Lending of sports weapons to minors 46  

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.

46 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Section 2 Possession of Weapons and Essential Weapon Components 47

47 Amended by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Adoption and Implementation of the Bilateral Agreements between Switzerland and the EU on the Association with Schengen and Dublin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

Art.12 Conditions 48  

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

48 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 13 and 1449  

49 Re­pealed by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, with ef­fect from 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

Chapter 3 Acquisition and Possession of Ammunition and Ammunition Components 50

50 Amended by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Adoption and Implementation of the Bilateral Agreements between Switzerland and the EU on the Association with Schengen and Dublin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

Art.15 Acquisition of ammunition and ammunition components 51  

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.

51 Amended by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

Art.16 Acquisition of ammunition at shooting events 52  

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.

52 Amended by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

53 Amended by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

Art. 16a Lawful possession 54  

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

54 In­ser­ted by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

Chapter 3a Acquisition and Possession of High Capacity Loading Devices55

55 Inserted by the Annex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the approval and the implementation of the exchange of notes between Switzerland and the EU on the adoption of Directive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amendment of the EU Weapons Directive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

Art. 16b Acquisition of high capacity loading devices  

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.

Art. 16c Lawful possession  

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

Chapter 4 Trade in and Manufacture of Weapons

Section 1 Trade in Weapons

Art.1756  

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.

56 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Section 2 Manufacture of Weapons

Art.18 Commercial manufacture, repair and conversion 57  

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.

57 Amended by Art. 2 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EC con­cern­ing the Ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive 2008/51/EC on Amend­ing the Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 2010 2899; BBl 2009 3649).

Art. 18a Marking of firearms 58  

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.

58 In­ser­ted by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin (AS 2008 447; BBl 20045965). Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

59 Second sen­tence re­pealed by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EC con­cern­ing the Ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, with ef­fect from 1 Sept. 2020 (AS 2019 2415, 2020 2953; BBl 2018 1881).

60 Amended by Art. 2 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EC con­cern­ing the Ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive 2008/51/EC on Amend­ing the Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 2010 2899; BBl 2009 3649).

Art. 18b Marking of ammunition 61  

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.

61 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EC con­cern­ing the Ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive 2008/51/EC on Amend­ing the Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 2010 2899; BBl 2009 3649).

Art.19 Non-commercial manufacture and conversion 62  

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.

62 Amended by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

Art.20 Prohibited alteration 63  

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.

63 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Section 3 Maintaining Records and Duty of Disclosure

Art.21 Maintaining records and notification requirement 6465  

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.

64 Amended by Art. 2 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EC con­cern­ing the Ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive 2008/51/EC on Amend­ing the Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 2010 2899; BBl 2009 3649).

65 Amended by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer-land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 14 Dec. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

66 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer-land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 14 Dec. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

67 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer-land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 14 Dec. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

Art.22 Duty of disclosure  

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

Chapter 5 Foreign Transactions 68

68 Originally before Art. 23. Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 22 June 2001 on the Streamlining of Federal Legislation on Weapons, War Material, Explosives and Goods Usable for Civilian and Military Purposes, in force since 1 March 2002 (AS 2002 248; BBl 20003369).

Art.22a Export, transit, brokerage and trade 69  

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

69 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 22 June 2001 on the Stream­lin­ing of Fed­er­al Le­gis­la­tion on Weapons, War Ma­ter­i­al, Ex­plos­ives and Goods Us­able for Ci­vil­ian and Mil­it­ary Pur­poses, in force since 1 March 2002 (AS 2002 248; BBl 20003369).

70 Amended by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17. Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

Art. 22b Accompanying document 71  

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.

71 In­ser­ted by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin (AS 2008 447; BBl 20045965). Amended by No I of the FA of 11 Dec. 2009 (Amend­ment to the Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen ac­quis), in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 20102823; BBl 2009 3649).

Art. 22c Control by the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security 72  

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.

72 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EC con­cern­ing the Ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive 2008/51/EC on Amend­ing the Weapons Dir­ect­ive (AS 2010 2899; BBl 2009 3649). Amended by No I 13 of the O of 12 June 2020 on the Amend­ment of Le­gis­la­tion as a con­sequence of the Change to the Name of the Fed­er­al Cus­toms Ad­min­is­tra­tion as part of its fur­ther De­vel­op­ment, in force since 1 Jan. 2022 (AS 2020 2743).

Art.23 Notification requirement 73  

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.

73 Amended by An­nex No 6 of the Cus­toms Act of 18 March 2005, in force since 1 May 2007 (AS 2007 1411; BBl 2004 567).

74 SR 631.0

75 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art.24 Bringing weapons into Switzerland on a commercial basis 76  

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.

76 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 24a Single-delivery permit 77  

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.

77 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 24b General permit for weapons other than firearms 78  

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.

78 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 24c General permit for weapons, weapon components and ammunition 79  

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.

79 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art.25 Bringing weapons into Switzerland on a non-commercial basis 80  

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.

80 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

81 Amended by No I of the FA of 11 Dec. 2009 (Amend­ment to the Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen ac­quis), in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 20102823; BBl 2009 3649).

82 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 11 Dec. 2009 (Amend­ment to the Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen ac­quis), in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 20102823; BBl 2009 3649).

83 Amended by No I of the FA of 11 Dec. 2009 (Amend­ment to the Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen ac­quis), in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 20102823; BBl 2009 3649).

Art. 25a Bringing firearms temporarily into Switzerland while travelling 8485  

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.

84 In­ser­ted by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

85 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

86 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

87 Amended by No I of the FA of 11 Dec. 2009 (Amend­ment to the Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen ac­quis), in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 20102823; BBl 2009 3649).

88 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 23 Dec. 2011, in force since 1 Jan. 2013 (AS 201245516775; BBl 2011 4555).

89 In­ser­ted by No I 5 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015 on Im­prov­ing the Ex­change of In­form­a­tion between Au­thor­it­ies in re­la­tion to Weapons, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2016 (AS 2016 1831; BBl 2014 303).

90 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 25b Taking firearms temporarily out of Switzerland while travelling 91  

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.

91 In­ser­ted by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

92 Amended by No I of the FA of 11 Dec. 2009 (Ad­apt­a­tion of the Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen Ac­quis), in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 20102823; BBl 2009 3649).

Chapter 6 Storing, Carrying and Transporting Weapons and Ammunition, Improper Carrying of Dangerous Objects 93

93 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art.26 Storage  

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.

Art.27 Carrying a weapon 94  

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.

94 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

95 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 23 Dec. 2011, in force since 1 Jan. 2013 (AS 201245516775; BBl 2011 4555).

Art. 27a General permit on the territory of Swiss airports 96  

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.

96 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art.28 Transporting weapons 97  

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.

97 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 28a Improper carrying of dangerous objects 98  

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.

98 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Chapter 7 Exemption Permits, Control, Administrative Sanctions and Fees 99

99 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Section 1 Exemption Permits 100

100 Inserted by the Annex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the approval and the implementation of the exchange of notes between Switzerland and the EU on the adoption of Directive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amendment of the EU Weapons Directive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

Art. 28b Weapons other than firearms and weapon accessories 101  

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

101 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007 (AS 2008 5499 5405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 2006 2713). Amended by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

Art. 28c Firearms and essential or specially designed weapon components 102  

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.

102 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

Art. 28d Special requirements for target shooters 103  

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.

103 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

Art. 28e Special requirements and obligations for collectors and museums 104  

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.

104 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

Section 2 Control, Administrative Sanctions and Fees 105

105 Inserted by the Annex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the approval and the implementation of the exchange of notes between Switzerland and the EU on the adoption of Directive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amendment of the EU Weapons Directive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

Art.29 Control 106  

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.

106 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art.30 Withdrawal of permits  

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

107 Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, with ef­fect from 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 30a Notification of the refusal or withdrawal of permits 108  

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.

108 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 30b Right to report 109  

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.

109 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art.31 Seizure and confiscation 110  

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 2bis or 2ter 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.

110 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

111 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EC con­cern­ing the Ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive 2008/51/EC on Amend­ing the Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 2010 2899; BBl 2009 3649).

112 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EC con­cern­ing the Ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive 2008/51/EC on Amend­ing the Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 2010 2899; BBl 2009 3649).

113 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

114 Amended by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

115 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

116 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

117 Amended by Art. 2 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive 2008/51/EC on the Amend­ment of the Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 2010 2899; BBl 2009 3649).

118 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

119 Amended by Art. 2 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive 2008/51/EC on the amend­ment of the Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 2010 2899; BBl 2009 3649).

Art. 31a Taking receipt of weapons by the cantons 120  

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.

120 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 31b Reporting office 121  

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.

121 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 31c Central office 122  

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;
bbis.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.

122 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

123 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 of the FD of 23 Dec. 2011 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the UN Fire­arms Pro­tocol, in force since 1 Jan. 2013 (AS 2012 6777; BBl 2011 4555).

Art. 31d National co-ordination unit for evaluating firearms trace marks 124  

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.

124 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art.32 Fees 125  

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.

125 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

126 Amended by No I 5 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015 on Im­prov­ing the Ex­change of In­form­a­tion between Au­thor­it­ies in re­la­tion to Weapons, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2016 (AS 2016 1831; BBl 2014 303).

127 In­ser­ted by No I 5 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015 on Im­prov­ing the Ex­change of In­form­a­tion between Au­thor­it­ies in re­la­tion to Weapons, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2016 (AS 2016 1831; BBl 2014 303).

Chapter 7a Data Processing and Data Protection128

128 Inserted by Art. 3 No 6 of the FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Adoption and Implementation of the Bilateral Agreements between Switzerland and the EU on the Association with Schengen and Dublin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

Section 1 Data Processing129

129 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 32a Information systems 130  

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.

130 Amended by No I 5 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015 on Im­prov­ing the Ex­change of In­form­a­tion between Au­thor­it­ies in re­la­tion to Weapons, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2016 (AS 2016 1831; BBl 2014 303).

131 SR 510.10

Art. 32abis Notification of the OASI insurance number 132  

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.

132 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 23 Dec. 2011 (AS 20124551; BBl 2011 4555). Amended by An­nex No 15 of the FA of 18 Dec. 2020 (Sys­tem­at­ic Use of the OASI Num­ber by Au­thor­it­ies), in force since 1 Jan. 2022 (AS 2021 758; BBl 20197359).

133 SR 831.10

Art. 32b Content of the databases 134  

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.

134 Amended by No I 5 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015 on Im­prov­ing the Ex­change of In­form­a­tion between Au­thor­it­ies in re­la­tion to Weapons, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2016 (AS 2016 1831; BBl 2014 303).

135 Term in ac­cord­ance with An­nex No 15 of the FA of 18 Dec. 2020 (Sys­tem­at­ic Use of the OASI Num­ber by Au­thor­it­ies), in force since 1 Jan. 2022 (AS 2021 758; BBl 20197359). This change has been made in the pro­vi­sions spe­cified in the AS.

136 Amended by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

137 SR 510.10

138 Amended by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer-land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 14 Dec. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

Art. 32c Disclosing data 139  

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.

139 Amended by No I 5 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015 on Im­prov­ing the Ex­change of In­form­a­tion between Au­thor­it­ies in re­la­tion to Weapons, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2016 (AS 2016 1831; BBl 2014 303).

140 SR 941.42

141 Amended by An­nex No 4 of the Pre­curs­ors Act of 25 Sept. 2020, in force since 1 Jan. 2023 (AS 2022 352; BBl 2020 161).

Section 2 Data Processing and Data Protection under the Schengen Association Agreements 142

142 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 32d Disclosing personal data to a Schengen state 143  

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

143 Amended by No I of the FA of 11 Dec. 2009 (Amend­ment to the Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen ac­quis), in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 20102823; BBl 2009 3649).

Art. 32e Disclosing personal data to a state that is not bound by any of the Schengen association agreements  

1 Per­son­al data may only be dis­closed to third states if they can guar­an­tee an ad­equate level of data pro­tec­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 16 para­graph 1 of the Data Pro­tec­tion Act of 25 Septem­ber 2020144 (FADP).145

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

a.
the per­son con­cerned has con­sen­ted in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 6 para­graph 6 and, if ap­plic­able, para­graph 7 FADP;
b.
dis­clos­ure is ne­ces­sary to pro­tect the life or phys­ic­al in­teg­rity of the per­son con­cerned and it is not pos­sible to ob­tain that per­son’s con­sent with­in a reas­on­able time;
c.
dis­clos­ure is ne­ces­sary to safe­guard over­rid­ing pub­lic in­terests or to de­term­ine, ex­er­cise or as­sert leg­al rights be­fore a court or an­oth­er com­pet­ent for­eign au­thor­ity.146

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.

144 SR 235.1

145 Amended by An­nex 1 No II 44 of the Data Pro­tec­tion Act of 25 Sept. 2020, in force since 1 Sept. 2023 (AS 2022 491; BBl 2017 6941).

146 Amended by An­nex 1 No II 44 of the Data Pro­tec­tion Act of 25 Sept. 2020, in force since 1 Sept. 2023 (AS 2022 491; BBl 2017 6941).

Art. 32f147  

147 Re­pealed by No 6 of the FA of 19 March 2010 on the Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Frame­work De­cision 2008/977/JI on the pro­tec­tion of per­son­al data pro­cessed in the frame­work of po­lice and ju­di­cial co­oper­a­tion in crim­in­al mat­ters, with ef­fect from 1 Dec. 2010 (AS 2010 33873418; BBl 2009 6749).

Art. 32g Right to information  

The right to in­form­a­tion is based on the fed­er­al or can­ton­al data pro­tec­tion pro­vi­sions.148149

148 Amended by No 6 of the FA of 19 March 2010 on the im­ple­ment­a­tion of Frame­work De­cision 2008/977/JI on the pro­tec­tion of per­son­al data pro­cessed in the frame­work of po­lice and ju­di­cial co­oper­a­tion in crim­in­al mat­ters, in force since 1 Dec. 2010 (AS 2010 33873418; BBl 2009 6749).

149 Second sen­tence re­pealed by An­nex 1 No II 44 of the Data Pro­tec­tion Act of 25 Sept. 2020, with ef­fect from 1 Sept. 2023 (AS 2022 491; BBl 2017 6941).

Art. 32h and 32i150  

150 Re­pealed by No 6 of the FA of 19 March 2010 on the im­ple­ment­a­tion of Frame­work De­cision 2008/977/JI on the pro­tec­tion of per­son­al data pro­cessed in the frame­work of po­lice and ju­di­cial co­oper­a­tion in crim­in­al mat­ters, with ef­fect from 1 Dec. 2010 (AS 2010 33873418; BBl 2009 6749).

Section 3 Notification Requirements151

151 Inserted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 32j Notification by the military authorities  

1 ...152

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.153

152 Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 23 Dec. 2011, with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2013 (AS 201245516775; BBl 2011 4555).

153 Amended by No I 5 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015 on Im­prov­ing the Ex­change of In­form­a­tion between Au­thor­it­ies in re­la­tion to Weapons, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2016 (AS 2016 1831; BBl 2014 303).

Art. 32k Notification by the cantonal authorities and reporting offices  

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.

Chapter 8 Criminal Provisions

Art.33 Misdemeanours and felonies 154155  

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.156
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;
abis.157 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.158
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, he or she is li­able to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.159

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

a.160
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.161
...
c.162
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.

154 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

155 Amended by Art. 2 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 onthe Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EC con­cern­ing the Ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive 2008/51/EC on Amend­ing the Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 2010 2899; BBl 2009 3649).

156 Amended by Art. 2 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EC con­cern­ing the Ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive 2008/51/EC on Amend­ing the Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 2010 2899; BBl 2009 3649).

157 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 of the FD of 23 Dec. 2011 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the UN Fire­arms Pro­tocol, in force since 1 Jan. 2013 (AS 2012 6777; BBl 2011 4555).

158 Amended by Art. 2 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EC con­cern­ing the Ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive 2008/51/EC on Amend­ing the Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 2010 2899; BBl 2009 3649).

159 Amended by No I 18 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

160 Amended by Art. 2 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EC con­cern­ing the Ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive 2008/51/EC on Amend­ing the Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 2010 2899; BBl 2009 3649).

161 Re­pealed by Art. 2 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EC con­cern­ing the Ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive 2008/51/EC on Amend­ing the Weapons Dir­ect­ive, with ef­fect from 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 2010 2899; BBl 2009 3649).

162 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EC con­cern­ing the Ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive 2008/51/EC on Amend­ing the Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 2010 2899; BBl 2009 3649).

Art.34 Contraventions 163  

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 2bis or 11 para­graph 4;
k.
uses pro­hib­ited forms of sup­ply (Art. 7b);
l.164
ob­tains the ac­com­pa­ny­ing note un­der false pre­tences by provid­ing in­cor­rect or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion;
lbis.165
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.

2166

163 Amended by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

164 Amended by No I of the FA of 11 Dec. 2009 (Ad­apt­a­tion of the Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen Ac­quis), in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 20102823; BBl 2009 3649).

165 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 11 Dec. 2009 (Ad­apt­a­tion of the Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen Ac­quis), in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 20102823; BBl 2009 3649).

166 Re­pealed by No I 18 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, with ef­fect from 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art.35 Offences committed within a business  

For of­fences com­mit­ted with­in a busi­ness, Art­icles 6 and 7 of the Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law Act of 22 March 1974167 ap­ply.

Art.36 Law enforcement  

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.168

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.

168 Amended by No I 13 of the O of 12 June 2020 on the Amend­ment of Le­gis­la­tion as a con­sequence of the Change to the Name of the Fed­er­al Cus­toms Ad­min­is­tra­tion as part of its fur­ther De­vel­op­ment, in force since 1 Jan. 2022 (AS 2020 2743).

Art.37169  

169 Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, with ef­fect from 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Chapter 9 Final Provisions

Art.38 Enforcement by the cantons  

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.

Art. 39170  

170 Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, with ef­fect from 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art.40 Implementing provisions of the Federal Council  

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.171

4 It may del­eg­ate im­ple­ment­a­tion tasks to the FO­CBS.172

171 Amended by 2 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EC con­cern­ing the Ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive 2008/51/EC on Amend­ing the Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 28 Ju­ly 2010 (AS 2010 2899; BBl 2009 3649).

172 Amended by No I 13 of the O of 12 June 2020 on the Amend­ment of Le­gis­la­tion as a con­sequence of the Change to the Name of the Fed­er­al Cus­toms Ad­min­is­tra­tion as part of its fur­ther De­vel­op­ment, in force since 1 Jan. 2022 (AS 2020 2743).

Art. 41173  

173 Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, with ef­fect from 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art.42 Transitional provision  

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 1972174 and 13 Decem­ber 1996175 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.176

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.177

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.178

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.179

174 [AS 1973 108. AS 1998 794Art. 44]

175 SR 514.51

176 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

177 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

178 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

179 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA 22 June 2007, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 54995405Art. 2 let. d; BBl 20062713).

Art. 42a Transitional provision on the amendment of 17 December 2004 180  

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.

180 In­ser­ted by Art. 3 No 6 of FD of 17 Dec. 2004 on the Ad­op­tion and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Bi­lat­er­al Agree­ments between Switzer­land and the EU on the As­so­ci­ation with Schen­gen and Dub­lin, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 4475405Art. 1 let. e; BBl 20045965).

Art. 42b Transitional provision to the Amendment of 28 September 2018 181  

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.

181 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 28 Sept. 2018 on the ap­prov­al and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the ex­change of notes between Switzer­land and the EU on the ad­op­tion of Dir­ect­ive (EU) 2017/853 on the Amend­ment of the EU Weapons Dir­ect­ive, in force since 15 Aug. 2019 (AS 2019 2415; BBl 2018 1881).

Art.43 Referendum and commencement  

1 This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

2 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Janu­ary 1999182

182 FCD of 21 Sept. 1998.

Annex 183

183 Inserted by No II of the FA of 11 Dec. 2009 (adaptation of the implementation of the Schengen Acquis), in force since 28 July 2010 (AS 20102823; BBl 2009 3649).

(Art. 4 para. 2bis)

Schengen Association Agreements

The Schengen Association Agreements comprise:

a.
the Agreement of 26 October 2004184 between the European Union, the European Community and the Swiss Confederation on the Swiss Confederation's association with the implementation, application and development of the Schengen acquis;
b.
the Agreement of 26 October 2004185 in the form of an exchange of letters between the Council of the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the Committees that assist the European Commission in the exercise of its executive powers;
c.
the Agreement of 17 December 2004186 between the Swiss Confederation, the Republic of Iceland and the Kingdom of Norway on the implementation, application and development of the Schengen Acquis and on the criteria and procedure for determining the State responsible for examining an application for asylum lodged in Switzerland, Iceland or Norway;
d.
Agreement of 28 April 2005187 between the Swiss Confederation and the Kingdom of Denmark on the implementation, application and development of those parts of the Schengen Acquis that are based on the provisions of Title IV of the Treaty establishing the European Community;
e.
the Protocol of 28 February 2008188 between the Swiss Confederation, the European Union, the European Community and the Principality of Liechtenstein on the accession of the Principality of Liechtenstein to the Agreement between the Swiss Confederation, the European Union and the European Community on the association of the Swiss Confederation with the implementation, application and development of the Schengen Acquis.

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