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LIFE IN SPAIN

What’s the law on guns in Spain?

Spain has some of Europe's strictest gun laws but there are many weapons - both legal and illegal - in the country. Here is a breakdown of the rules and reality of gun ownership in Spain.

What's the law on guns in Spain?
Legal gun owners in Spain have some responsibilities, namely keeping the firearm in a secure place. (Photo by JUSTIN SULLIVAN / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

When looking over the Atlantic to the United States, we often think of their gun laws as strange, foreign, and in the midst of mass shootings, outright crazy. It’s easy to assume that there are no guns in Spain, and that it’s a distinctly American thing or not something we worry about in Europe.

But the reality is that there are guns in Spain. According to 2016 data from by Spain’s Central Inspectorate for Arms and Explosives (ICAE), Spain has over three million registered arms, belonging to 1.1 million civilians, most of whom have ostensibly bought their weapons for hunting, target shooting, or as collector’s items.

Some 8,000 Spanish civilians are also authorised to carry a gun for self-defense after providing proof they are at risk.

Inventory records from ICAE show that Andalusia has the most guns in Spain, over 600,000, most of which are for hunting – while Melilla has the least with 399. 

Although very difficult to gage for obvious reasons, in 2017 the Geneva Small Arms Survey estimated that Spain was home to as many as 780,000 illegally owned firearms, but that number could be higher.

But what are the rules? Here’s what you need to know about gun laws in Spain.

The law

Very simply put, you cannot carry or possess firearms in Spain without an official license or special authorisation (more on that later) from the state. 

In fact, Article 149.26 of the Spanish constitution makes very clear that Spanish state alone (government and relevant police and security authorities) has exclusive control over the production, sale, possession and use of firearms and explosives in Spain.

Exceptions aside, which will be touched on below, the Spanish law in effect deems guns sporting equipment only, and sees (very few) reasons why you might reasonably need one for non-sporting purposes. Guns are available for shooting and, in what is a very popular Spanish pasatiempo, hunting.

READ ALSO How to stay safe during hunting season in rural Spain

How to get a gun in Spain

Unlike getting a gun in the United States, where arms are almost treated like chocolates or chewing gums to be picked up while waiting at the supermarket checkout, getting your hands on a weapon in Spain is much more difficult, and involves a laborious process of official tests, interviews and, of course, waiting.

To get a gun in Spain, you must:

  • Be 18 years old.
  • Pass a theory exam which includes questions on weapons and, crucially, gun laws and regulations in Spain. You must get at least 16/20 questions right in order to pass.
  • Undergo and pass a psychological assessment.
  • Once you’ve passed the psychological assessment and received the results, then begins a period (that can last up to six months) of practical training and tests. These are always carried out at legally designated shooting fields and ranges, supervised, and designed to tests the applicant’s aptitude with a weapon.
  • If you pass that, you must undergo eye and hearing tests.

What are the different licenses?

  • Licence A: All kinds of weapons except automatic and wartime weapons. This license is exclusively for members of the state and security forces.
  • Licence B: Self-defence, allowing the possession and use of handguns under special government authorisation.
  • Licence C: Ownership and possession of handguns in the context of private security duties.
  • Licence D: Licence specifically intended for big-game hunting allowing the use of rifles and shotguns.
  • Licence E: License specifically intended for small-game hunting, including shotguns.
  • Licence F: Focused on the use and possession of sport weapons and Olympic shooting sports, including pistols and carbines.
  • Licence AE: Specifically for collectors.
  • License AEM (Autorización especial de Menores) A special license for children age 14 or over who want to hunt under the supervision of a parent or guardian with their own license. This AEM license is particularly difficult to obtain.

Buying and selling guns

Weapons can be sold between people with legally obtained licences in Spain, although not directly. All sales are supervised by Spain’s Guardia Civil police, and the seller must surrender the arm to the authorities before the buyer collects it on Guardia Civil premises.

Weapons can also be lent to another person for a maximum of 15 days if all the appropriate paperwork is done with the Guardia Civil and the other person also has a legally obtained license.

Ownership obligations

Legal gun owners in Spain have some responsibilities, namely keeping the firearm in a secure place and to prevent theft or loss, and to present the gun to the Guardia Civil whenever they ask.

Gun owners that lose or have their firearm stolen must report it immediately to the authorities, and if their license is lost they must surrender the weapon until new paperwork is arranged.

Self-defence 

There are believed to be as many as 8,000 Spaniards with special permission to carry guns for self-defence – those declared “at risk” and issued with a B license by Spanish police.

Applicants must prove they are at risk or fear for their life, and it is believed that the majority of these special B license holdees are high-profile public figures like politicians or football players, or those who might come into contact with criminals, such as gun-sellers, judges or magistrates, and former police and military personnel. The weapons must be concealed. 

There has been debate in recent years over the use of firearms for self-protection in Spain, with notable cases of gun owners jailed for shooting in self-defence, including a man in his 80s who was sent to jail after shooting an assailant who broke into his home in Tenerife and attacked his wife. 

READ ALSO Far-right Vox party wants to loosen Spain’s gun laws

It has been a recurring populist talking point of far-right party Vox, with leader Santiago Abascal calling for the loosening of gun control in Spain. 

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TERRORISM

Spain sees heightened terror risk amid global conflicts

Amid rising tensions and conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere around the world, a meeting by Spain's National Security Council has identified several threats to national security, some pre-existing and some new.

Spain sees heightened terror risk amid global conflicts

Global conflict and instability has raised the terror and security risk in Spain. This is what Spain’s National Security Council (CSN) has concluded following a meeting with government ministers on Tuesday to approve security reports and outline new anti-terror strategies. A 61-page document was compiled to replace the previous one approved in 2019 and will be valid for five years.

Among the topics discussed, which are outlined here on the National Security Council website, were the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine and the heightened security threats they pose to Spain.

The war in Gaza, the Council states, presents “a real and direct risk” of an increase in “the terrorist threat, violent extremism and the emergence of new movements that promote a radical and violent ideology.”

READ ALSO: Spain could enforce conscription of ordinary citizens if there is war

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the document stresses, is also “a potential catalyst for terrorism”, as it “has led to an increase in the circulation of arms and explosives [in Europe], as well as the participation in the war of volunteer fighters of other nationalities”.

These uncertain global conditions could be exploited by groups or individuals “to undermine public security”, the document adds, and suggests that “state actors could carry out terrorist actions,” in what appears to be an allusion to the assassination of a Russian soldier in Alicante earlier in the year.

READ ALSO: Mystery surrounds death of Russian helicopter deserter in Spain

The meeting and report also outlined broader “risks and threats to national security” grouped into 16 categories, some older and long-established, some much more modern. They range from terrorism and violent radicalisation to the effects of climate change, space vulnerability, cyberspace, organised crime, migratory flows, foreign espionage and interference from abroad.

The CSN detects growing dangers to Spanish airspace, namely “events of commercial satellite launches from aerial platforms crossing controlled airspace, events of re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere of satellite launcher debris, uncontrolled hot air balloon overflights and an increase in drone overflights over military bases,” things that have all been noted in Spain in recent years.

In terms of terrorism, despite the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine Islamic terrorism remains the greatest threat to Spanish security. “The repeated dismantling of the leaderships of Daesh and Al Qaeda has not succeeded in eliminating these groups, which act in a more decentralised manner than in previous years,” the report states.

During the period covered by the previous security strategy (2019-2023) “more than 110 [security] operations related to terrorism activities have been carried out,” more than 90 of which were linked to jihadist terrorism, the document details. Just 5 percent were linked to domestic terrorism.

Foreign spies operating in Spain were also highlighted as a threat. The CSN report stated that the decision to expel 27 Russian diplomats from Spain at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was useful in this regard. “These expulsions significantly reduced their ability to operate on European territory, which led to a notable decrease in the rate of activity of foreign intelligence services in Spain,” the report states.

READ ALSO: Judge in Spain extends probe into Catalan separatist’s ‘Russia ties’

However, the potential threat from the Kremlin is again mentioned as the driving force behind the barrage of hoaxes and disinformation campaigns. In the case of Spain, Moscow reportedly “focuses on trying to spread a distorted image of migration in the Mediterranean and the situation in Ceuta and Melilla”.

But it’s not just the Russians attempting to misinform the public in Spain. The report also points to “official Chinese media and their propagandists on social networks in Spanish have amplified many pro-Russian narratives”, with messages “based on expressing a rejection of the US and the current international order”.

The report lists 83 Russian disinformation incidents and 12 Chinese in the last year alone. Among these, several were aimed at “creating mistrust” in Spain’s electoral processes.

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