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

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