If you have inherited weapons and/or ammunition, you must immediately notify the competent authority of your seizure of the weapons. In addition, within one month of accepting the inheritance or of the deadline within which you could have renounced the inheritance, you must apply for the issuance of a firearms ownership card for the firearms subject to authorisation or their registration on a gun ownership card that has already been issued.
If you already have a gun ownership card (WBK), you can have the hereditary weapons registered in it, provided that you can prove a need for the inherited weapons (e.g. as a hunter, sports shooter, traditional shooter, weapons or ammunition collector, weapon or ammunition expert, endangered person, as a weapons manufacturer or arms dealer or as a security contractor).
If you cannot prove a need to possess the inherited weapons, you must render the weapons unusable or have them fitted with a state-of-the-art blocking system. Ammunition subject to authorisation must be rendered unusable or handed over to an authorised person. However, you don't have to block the weapons if you already have a gun ownership card.
All changes to the inherited weapons must be demonstrably carried out by a specialist and reported to the competent authority accordingly.. If or as long as there is no corresponding blocking system on the market for one or more hereditary weapons, exemptions from the obligation to provide all hereditary weapons with a state-of-the-art locking system may be permitted – upon request.
As a community of heirs, you can also apply for a joint permit. If not everyone wants to inherit the weapons, these people must declare that they renounce the inheritance. In order to obtain the joint permit, all members of a community of heirs must prove their need and the requirements are checked for all applicants.
It is recommended that you inform yourself in detail about the regulations of the weapons law before applying.
In order to obtain permission to possess weapons and ammunition subject to authorisation, you must, in principle:
- have the appropriate age, and
- Your need,
- Your reliability in terms of weapons law,
- Your personal suitability,
- your expertise in dealing with weapons and ammunition as well as
- the safe storage of weapons and ammunition
prove.
