Firearms laws in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico is United States territory, so federal firearms law applies there in full: licensed dealers, the federal form, the background check. What sits on top of that is territorial, and it was rewritten from the ground up by the Puerto Rico Weapons Act of 2020, which took effect on 1 January 2020. Anything written before that date describes a system that no longer exists.
What the 2020 act changed
- Shall issue. The old scheme gave police wide discretion to refuse. The new one requires issue to an applicant who meets the stated criteria.
- One licence instead of two. Possession and carry used to be separate applications with separate hurdles. They are now a single weapons licence that does both.
- Lower fees. The cost of entry was cut sharply, and the separate target-shooting and hunting categories were folded in.
- Reciprocity and stand your ground. Both were written into the act.
The effect was not subtle. Licences issued went from roughly a thousand a year before the change to tens of thousands a year after it.
Getting the licence
Applicants must be at least 21 and must not be prohibited under federal law. The application is notarised on the territory's own form and submitted with proof of identity, date of birth and legal presence, a recent photograph, a criminal record certificate issued within the previous 30 days, the filing fee, and fingerprints taken by the Police Bureau. A firearms use and handling course has to be completed before the licence is issued.
The licence is what a dealer checks before transferring, and it is also the carry document. There is no second permit to apply for once you hold it.
Buying a gun there
A licence is required to acquire, from a dealer or privately. With it, a purchase works the way it works on the mainland: the gun ships to a licensed dealer in Puerto Rico, the dealer verifies the licence and identification, the federal form is completed and the background check is run at that counter. We ship to any licensed dealer, and a Puerto Rico dealer is no different in that respect from a New Jersey one.
Why this page sits on a New Jersey store
Because the contrast is the useful part. New Jersey and Puerto Rico both make you hold a document before you may acquire a firearm, and they arrived at opposite answers about what that document should cost and how much discretion the issuing authority gets. Puerto Rico merged possession and carry into one shall-issue licence; New Jersey keeps a firearms purchaser identification card for long guns, a separate permit for each handgun and a one-per-30-days limit. Both are set out inNew Jersey gun laws and inthe state-by-state breakdown of firearms identification cards.
General information, not legal advice. Territorial rules and fees change. Confirm current requirements with the Puerto Rico Police Bureau before you apply or buy.
