Gun licence for sport shooting in Germany

Membership

You must be a member of a shooting club that belongs to a shooting association recognised under the Waffengesetz.WaffG § 14 Abs. 2

To buy

A certificate from the association, or its Teilverband (affiliated branch), that you have shot at least once in every whole month of the last 12 months, or 18 times in all within them, after at least 12 months of shooting with licensable firearms in a club, and that the gun is approved for and needed in a discipline of its Sportordnung (rulebook).WaffG § 14 Abs. 3 Satz 1

Pace

As a rule, no more than two guns may be bought within six months.WaffG § 14 Abs. 3 Satz 2

Five-yearly check

Every five years the Waffenbehörde checks that your need continues. The association certifies your shooting. In the WSV’s reading of the law’s “innerhalb eines abgeschlossenen Zeitraums von jeweils zwölf Monaten”: in each of the two twelve-month periods before the check you shot in a club with a licensable gun of your own at least once every three months or at least six times, for long guns and handguns separately if you hold both. See the activity section for the committee’s looser reading.WaffG § 4 Abs. 4; § 14 Abs. 4 Satz 1–2

After ten years

Once ten years have passed since your first gun was entered on a Waffenbesitzkarte, or since your first ammunition permit was issued, membership of a shooting club in a recognised association, shown by the club’s certificate, is enough for the five-yearly check. Whether that also covers guns beyond the basic quota, whose need to own § 14 Abs. 5 ties to the association’s certificate, the law does not say; the WSV says it does not.WaffG § 14 Abs. 4 Satz 3, Abs. 5

Number of guns

To buy and to own more than three semi-automatic long guns or two multi-shot handguns for cartridges, you need the association’s certificate that each further gun is needed for another discipline or for competition, and that you compete regularly.WaffG § 14 Abs. 5

You

At least 21, or 18 for .22 l.r. rimfire guns of up to 200 joules and smooth-bore long guns of 12 gauge or smaller that have no magazine and are loaded by hand before each shot, over-and-under and side-by-side shotguns included; reliable and personally suitable, with a report on your mental suitability for a first permit if you are under 25, except for those guns; and proof of Sachkunde.WaffG § 4 Abs. 1; § 6 Abs. 3; § 14 Abs. 1

The sport-shooter rules in WaffG § 14 were rewritten by the Drittes Waffenrechtsänderungsgesetz (3. WaffRÄndG) of 17 February 2020. The Bundestag’s interior committee, which wrote them, moved the figures of 12 months, monthly or 18 times, from the administrative regulation into the law itself, for more legal certainty (BT-Drs. 19/15875). What has changed since then:

• 2020: the need is checked every five years (WaffG § 4 Abs. 4), shooting is proved per category, long guns and handguns, rather than per gun, and membership alone is enough after ten years (§ 14 Abs. 4). The yellow card was capped at ten guns; anyone who held more on it on 1 September 2020 keeps that number for as long as they hold them (§ 14 Abs. 6; § 58 Abs. 22). The Waffenbehörde may ask you to appear in person in justified cases (§ 4 Abs. 5). Large detachable magazines were prohibited (Anlage 2 Abschnitt 1 Nr. 1.2.4.3–1.2.4.4; see how many guns).
• 31 October 2024: the Waffenbehörde may search publicly available sources (WaffG § 4 Abs. 6), and § 4 Abs. 5 now says when a case for calling you in person is justified. The act rewrote § 6 Abs. 1 so that the authority asks the police of every place you lived in Germany in the last ten years about you, and rewrote the grounds that rule out reliability (§ 5 Abs. 1).
• 24 July 2025: several changes, among them one for air guns; see Air rifles.
• 1 January 2026: the transition that let a club certify your shooting for the five-yearly check ended on 31 December 2025. The certificate of your shooting now comes from the association or its Teilverband (WaffG § 14 Abs. 4 Satz 1; § 58 Abs. 21); after ten years, the club still certifies your membership (§ 14 Abs. 4 Satz 3).
• 2 April 2026: the latest amendment, to the list of offences that rule out reliability (WaffG § 5 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 Buchstabe c).

The federal interior ministry began an evaluation of the weapons law in September 2025, with the recognised shooting associations taking part; the Bund Deutscher Sportschützen (BDS) reported in August 2026 that it had received the ministry’s questionnaire.

1. Join a shooting club that belongs to a recognised shooting association, such as the Deutscher Schützenbund (DSB) or the Bund Deutscher Sportschützen (BDS) (WaffG § 14 Abs. 2).
2. Shoot in the club for at least 12 months under the association’s Sportordnung: in the last 12 months, at least once in every whole month or 18 times in all (WaffG § 14 Abs. 3 Satz 1 Nr. 1–2). The law asks for shooting with licensable firearms, not with your own; on the range you may use a gun handed to you there without a permit (§ 12 Abs. 1 Nr. 5).
3. Pass the Sachkunde exam, in theory and in practice. Clubs of a recognised association may hold it for their members, and a passed Jägerprüfung (hunting exam) also counts (AWaffV §§ 1–3).
4. Ask the association, or its Teilverband, for the Bedürfnisbescheinigung (certificate of need) for the gun you want. It confirms the 12 months and how often you shot, and that the gun is approved for and needed in one of its disciplines (WaffG § 14 Abs. 3 Satz 1).
5. If you are under 25, get a report on your mental suitability from a public health officer, a specialist doctor or a specialist psychologist, at your own cost. It is not needed for .22 l.r. rimfire guns of up to 200 joules or smooth-bore long guns of 12 gauge or smaller that have no magazine and are loaded by hand before each shot, over-and-under and side-by-side shotguns included (WaffG § 6 Abs. 3; § 14 Abs. 1 Satz 2; AWaffV § 4).
6. Apply to the Waffenbehörde where you live, with the certificate, your Sachkunde and proof of how you will store the gun (WaffG § 36 Abs. 3). It checks your reliability and personal suitability with the criminal records, the police and the Verfassungsschutz, the domestic intelligence service (§§ 5–6).
7. You get a Waffenbesitzkarte with a permit to buy that gun, valid for one year (WaffG § 10 Abs. 1). Report the purchase to the Waffenbehörde within two weeks and hand in your Waffenbesitzkarte with the report, so the gun can be entered on it (§ 37a; § 37g Abs. 1).

The green Waffenbesitzkarte is the ordinary card: each gun you buy on it needs its own permit and certificate. A registered member of a recognised association can also get the yellow card, a permit without time limit to buy up to ten guns of certain kinds: long guns without a magazine (any number of barrels), manually operated repeating rifles, single-shot single-barrel handguns for cartridges (not revolvers), and multi-shot percussion guns. To get it you need the 12 months and the frequency; guns bought on it need no certificate each, but the two-in-six-months rule applies (WaffG § 14 Abs. 6).

The Waffenbehörde may refuse a permit to someone who has not lived in Germany for at least five years (WaffG § 4 Abs. 2).

Germany asks for Sachkunde (expert knowledge), not a shooting score. The exam covers the weapons law, including self-defence and necessity, how guns and ammunition work, and safe handling, with enough skill in shooting (AWaffV § 1 Abs. 1). It has a theory part and a practical part, and you may retake it (AWaffV § 2 Abs. 3 and 5).

You need it only for the kind of gun and the purpose you apply for (AWaffV § 1 Abs. 2). You can take it before a committee the authority sets up, in a state-recognised course, or at a club of a recognised association, which may examine its own members. A passed Jägerprüfung counts, and so does knowledge gained as a sport shooter in a recognised association and certified by it (AWaffV §§ 2–3).

The Bedürfnis (need) is what entitles a sport shooter to a gun. The law recognises it for members of a club in a recognised association, and the association, or its Teilverband, certifies the shooting behind it (WaffG § 14 Abs. 2–4).

What counts is sport shooting under the fixed rules of an approved Sportordnung (WaffG § 15a Abs. 1), in a club. To buy, the law asks for shooting with licensable firearms, not with your own; at the five-yearly check, it must be a licensable gun of your own, so a licence-free air gun does not count (WaffG § 14 Abs. 3–4). WaffG § 14 sets no number of shots for a session.

The six times are the hard part to read. The law says “innerhalb eines abgeschlossenen Zeitraums von jeweils zwölf Monaten”, while the Bundestag committee wrote of six times spread over twelve months (BT-Drs. 19/15875). The table follows the stricter reading, which is the practice of the WSV, the Württemberg DSB state association: it counts the 24 months back to the day from the date of the Waffenbehörde’s letter asking for proof, splits them into two twelve-month periods, and judges each on its own, by either pattern.

More of the WSV’s practice: a session counts when you fire at least the shots of half a programme of a discipline your gun is approved for, at most one session a day for buying, and one a day in each category for the check. For buying, sessions with licence-free air guns do not count, and 18 sessions must start at the beginning of the 12 months and not bunch at its start or end. For the check, club guns and borrowed guns do not count, and only guns entered on your card with sport shooting as the need do, so a gun you hold as a hunter does not.

Each association must have its clubs keep a record of how often every member shot in the 24 months before a check, unless the ten-year rule applies (WaffG § 15 Abs. 1 Nr. 7 b). For a certificate to buy, the Bavarian DSB state association (BSSB), for example, accepts copies of a Schießbuch (shooting logbook) or of the club’s register, as long as they show the discipline number of each session.

Since 1 January 2026 the certificate of your shooting for the five-yearly check (WaffG § 14 Abs. 4 Satz 1) must come from the association or its Teilverband; until 31 December 2025 the club could issue it (§ 58 Abs. 21). The membership certificate after ten years still comes from the club (§ 14 Abs. 4 Satz 3).

A Waffenbesitzkarte has no end date: the permit to own a gun is as a rule unlimited, and only the permit to buy a particular gun runs out, after one year (WaffG § 10 Abs. 1). The yellow card is a permit without time limit (§ 14 Abs. 6).

Instead, the Waffenbehörde checks you: your reliability and personal suitability at least every three years (WaffG § 4 Abs. 3), and that your need continues every five years (§ 4 Abs. 4). For the need, the association certifies your shooting in the 24 months before the check (§ 14 Abs. 4).

Once ten years have passed since your first gun was entered on a Waffenbesitzkarte, or since your first ammunition permit was issued, membership of a shooting club in a recognised association, shown by the club’s certificate, is enough for the five-yearly check (WaffG § 14 Abs. 4 Satz 3). The Bundestag committee spoke of shooting proof at the checks five and ten years after the first permit, and membership alone at later checks (BT-Drs. 19/15875); the WSV applies the rule when, by the date of the Waffenbehörde’s letter asking for proof, you have held licensable guns without a break for more than ten years, counted from the entry of your first gun.

The need to own a gun beyond the basic quota, and not only to buy it, rests on the association’s certificate (WaffG § 14 Abs. 5: “Erwerb und Besitz”), and a service page released by the Landratsamt Ludwigsburg says the need must be shown for each such gun. The WSV, for one, asks at every five-yearly check for at least one competition start a year with each gun beyond the basic quota, at a club championship or higher, over the two years before; in its practice the ten-year rule does not lift that. The BDS, another recognised association, criticises the counting for guns beyond the basic quota after decades of shooting as a Baden-Württemberg practice.

If you refuse to take part in a check, the Waffenbehörde may presume that the condition is gone, once it has told you so (WaffG § 45 Abs. 4).

Some Länder charge for the checks. In Berlin: €45 for the five-yearly need check, €30 for sport shooters after each further ten years, and €61 for the three-yearly reliability check (Service Berlin).

The law sets a basic quota for sport shooters: three semi-automatic long guns and two multi-shot handguns for cartridges. To buy and to own a further gun of those kinds, you need the association’s certificate that you need it for another discipline or for competition, and that you have taken part in shooting competitions regularly (WaffG § 14 Abs. 5). The law sets no absolute ceiling.

How regular is regular is left to the association. The BSSB, for example, asks for two competitions within the last 24 months for a certificate to buy beyond the quota, and counts competitions from club level up. The need to own a gun beyond the basic quota, and not only to buy it, rests on the association’s certificate (WaffG § 14 Abs. 5: “Erwerb und Besitz”), and a service page released by the Landratsamt Ludwigsburg says the need must be shown for each such gun. The WSV, for one, asks at every five-yearly check for at least one competition start a year with each gun beyond the basic quota, at a club championship or higher, over the two years before; in its practice the ten-year rule does not lift that. The BDS, another recognised association, criticises the counting for guns beyond the basic quota after decades of shooting as a Baden-Württemberg practice.

Every gun bought on the green card must also be approved for and needed in a discipline of your association’s Sportordnung (WaffG § 14 Abs. 3 Satz 1 Nr. 3), and suitable and needed for the purpose (§ 8).

On the yellow card you may buy up to ten guns of its kinds (WaffG § 14 Abs. 6). Whatever the card, as a rule you may buy no more than two guns within six months, a rule the Berlin authority calls the Erwerbsstreckungsgebot (WaffG § 14 Abs. 3 Satz 2; Service Berlin).

Magazines are limited too. Since the 2020 amendment, a detachable magazine for centre-fire cartridges is prohibited when, in the smallest calibre it is made for, it holds more than 20 rounds for a handgun or more than ten for a long gun. A magazine that fits both counts as a handgun magazine unless you also hold a permit for a long gun it fits (WaffG Anlage 2 Abschnitt 1 Nr. 1.2.4.3–1.2.4.4). A magazine bought before 13 June 2017, held on that day and reported by 1 September 2021 is exempt (§ 58 Abs. 17).

• Air guns: see Air rifles below.
• The range: you need no shooting permit on a range (WaffG § 12 Abs. 4), and no permit for a gun handed to you there only to shoot on that range (§ 12 Abs. 1 Nr. 5).
• Transport: you need no carry permit to take a gun to the range for a purpose your need covers, if it is not loaded, with no cartridge in the cylinder, an inserted magazine or the chamber, and not ready to hand; the law names a locked container as not ready to hand (WaffG § 12 Abs. 3 Nr. 2; Anlage 1 Abschnitt 2 Nr. 12–13).
• Hunting: a hunter’s need is judged under WaffG § 13, and hunters need no report under 25 (§ 13 Abs. 2 Satz 1). A holder of an annual hunting licence is not checked for need for long guns and two handguns, and buys long guns without a prior permit, applying for the card within two weeks (§ 13 Abs. 2 Satz 2, Abs. 3).
• Collectors: a collection of cultural or historical importance is a need of its own, on the red card (WaffG § 17; Service Berlin).
• Not for sport: handguns with a barrel shorter than 7.62 cm (3 inches), some semi-automatics that look like military weapons, and semi-automatic long guns with a magazine of more than ten rounds are excluded from sport shooting, unless the Bundesverwaltungsamt (Federal Office of Administration) allows an exception (AWaffV § 6).

Licence-free

An air, spring or cold-gas (such as CO2) pistol or rifle whose projectiles are given no more than 7.5 joules and that bears the F-in-a-pentagon mark needs no licence to buy or own, as the Bundestag’s interior committee and the federal government read the 2025 wording (see below). The exemption does not cover carrying or shooting.WaffG § 2 Abs. 2 and 4; Anlage 2 Abschnitt 2 Unterabschnitt 2 Nr. 1.1

The mark

The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), the national metrology institute, confirms a model’s right to the mark once the model has passed its test, and a Beschussamt (proof house) may mark single pieces.BeschussV § 11 Abs. 6 Satz 4–5; Anlage II Abbildung 10

Old guns

A gun of these kinds made before 1 January 1970, or in the former East Germany before 2 April 1991, and put on the market under the rules then in force needs no licence to buy or own either.WaffG Anlage 2 Abschnitt 2 Unterabschnitt 2 Nr. 1.2

Age

You must be 18 to buy, own or shoot a licence-free air gun, as for any weapon (see Under 18); younger shooters may shoot one as set out below.WaffG § 1 Abs. 3; § 2 Abs. 1

Handing one over

A gun may be handed to someone else, even on loan, only if they are entitled to it, and the entitlement must be obvious or proved.WaffG § 34 Abs. 1; Anlage 1 Abschnitt 2 Nr. 3

Younger shooters

On a range, children aged 12 and 13, and youths aged 14 to 17, may shoot licence-free air guns in the care of a guardian entitled to supervise the shooting, or of a responsible supervisor fit for youth work, if a guardian has consented in writing or electronically, or is there; the supervisor takes the written consent before the shooting starts. For youths with these guns the law lifts only that special care, not the guardian’s consent or presence, and the range’s supervisors still oversee all shooting there.WaffG § 27 Abs. 3; AWaffV § 11 Abs. 1

Under 12

For a child under 12, the authority can make an exception to promote Leistungssport (performance sport), and should when a doctor certifies mental and physical fitness and the club certifies talent.WaffG § 27 Abs. 4

Fairground galleries

At a mobile shooting gallery run for amusement, a responsible supervisor may let anyone under 18 shoot licence-free air guns; with children, the operator must see that the supervisor serves only one shooter at a time.WaffG § 27 Abs. 6

Above the limit

Any other air gun, above 7.5 joules, without the mark, or one of the multi-shot guns below, needs a licence like any firearm: a Waffenbesitzkarte from the Waffenbehörde, on the conditions this guide sets out for sport guns.WaffG § 2 Abs. 2; § 10 Abs. 1

Age above the limit

The exceptions some guns have to the age of 21 and to the report on mental suitability under 25 (see The rules in short) do not include air guns.WaffG § 6 Abs. 3 Satz 2; § 14 Abs. 1 Satz 2

Carrying and transport

Carrying an air gun outside your own home, business premises, enclosed property or a range is Führen (carrying), and it needs a Waffenschein (carry licence) even for a licence-free one; the Kleiner Waffenschein (small carry licence) covers only blank, irritant and signal guns. The exception for transport, unloaded and not ready to hand (see above), is tied to a purpose covered by a Bedürfnis, and the law does not say how it applies to a licence-free air gun, which is held without one.WaffG § 10 Abs. 4; § 12 Abs. 3 Nr. 2; Anlage 1 Abschnitt 2 Nr. 4; Anlage 2 Abschnitt 2 Unterabschnitt 2 Nr. 1, Unterabschnitt 3 Nr. 2.1

Where you may shoot

Without a shooting permit, only on a range, or on befriedetes Besitztum (enclosed property) by whoever holds its Hausrecht (the right to decide who may be there), or with their consent, with a gun whose projectiles are given no more than 7.5 joules, and only if the projectiles cannot leave the property. Elsewhere, save for a few special cases the law lists, shooting needs an Erlaubnisschein (shooting permit) from the authority.WaffG § 10 Abs. 5; § 12 Abs. 4

Storage

A licence-free air gun is kept unloaded and at least in a locked container. One that needs a licence is stored like any licensable gun (see Storage).AWaffV § 13 Abs. 1–2

Penalties

Carrying any air gun without the Waffenschein it needs, or buying or owning one that needs a licence without a Waffenbesitzkarte, is a crime punishable by up to three years in prison or a fine. Shooting without a permit where one is needed, buying or owning a licence-free one under 18, handing a licence-free one to someone not entitled to it, letting a child or youth shoot against the range rules above, or a fairground operator not seeing that the supervisor serves one child at a time is an administrative offence, with a fine of up to €10,000. Handing one that needs a licence to someone not entitled to it is a crime.WaffG § 52 Abs. 3 Nr. 2 Buchstabe a and Nr. 7; § 53 Abs. 1 Nr. 1, 3, 12 and 16, Abs. 2

Since 24 July 2025, as the Bundestag’s interior committee explains the new wording, an air gun that by its construction is multi-shot for projectiles longer than 30 mm needs a licence even at 7.5 joules or less, if the PTB confirmed its mark, or a proof house applied it, on or after that day. The committee aimed the rule at new guns that fire needle projectiles in sabots, which can wound gravely despite the low energy (WaffG Anlage 2 Abschnitt 2 Unterabschnitt 2 Nr. 1.1; BT-Drs. 21/633).

Read word for word, though, the second condition in the new Nr. 1.1 (Buchstabe b) frees a gun only if the PTB’s confirmation of its mark under BeschussV § 11 Abs. 6 Satz 4, or a proof house’s marking under Satz 5, “did not take place before 24 July 2025”. That would take the exemption from every gun whose mark was confirmed or applied earlier, new guns of models confirmed earlier included. The committee and the federal government read it otherwise: the committee wrote that the rule is not retroactive and that conventional air guns, widely used in sport and leisure, stay under the established rules, and the government said those common in sport shooting are not affected. No correction of the wording has been published (BGBl. 2025 I Nr. 171, Artikel 2 Nr. 6; BT-Drs. 21/633; Bundesregierung, 23 July 2025).

More on air rifles on the Shooter blog →

Handling any weapon is for those aged 18 and over (WaffG § 2 Abs. 1). The authority may allow exceptions to the age limits for special reasons (§ 3 Abs. 3).

Children from 12 and youths shoot air guns on a range on the conditions set out in Air rifles.

With the same care and consent, youths aged 14 to 17 may also shoot .22 l.r. rimfire guns of up to 200 joules and smooth-bore long guns of 12 gauge or smaller that have no magazine and are loaded by hand before each shot, over-and-under and side-by-side shotguns included on a range. Youths aged 16 and 17 do not need that special care (WaffG § 27 Abs. 3).

• Licensable guns are kept unloaded in a safe that meets DIN/EN 1143-1 and is certified by an accredited body (AWaffV § 13 Abs. 1).
• Grade 0 under 200 kg: any number of long guns and up to five handguns. Grade 0 of 200 kg or more: up to ten handguns. Grade I: any number (AWaffV § 13 Abs. 2).
• Ammunition: at least in a steel box with a swing-bolt lock, or in the safe (AWaffV § 13 Abs. 2).
• Air guns: see Air rifles.
• In a building nobody lives in permanently: at most three long guns, in a grade I safe (AWaffV § 13 Abs. 4).
• A safe to the old standard that was in use up to 6 July 2017 may still be used by its owner, and shared with entitled members of the household (WaffG § 36 Abs. 4). Entitled members of one household may share a safe in any case (AWaffV § 13 Abs. 8).
• You must prove your storage when you apply and let the authority in to check it; it may enter your home against your will only to prevent urgent danger (WaffG § 36 Abs. 3). In Berlin, a storage check costs €103 (Service Berlin).
• Storing a gun wrongly, so that it could be lost or someone unauthorised could get at it, is a crime punishable by up to three years in prison or a fine (WaffG § 52 Abs. 3 Nr. 7a). Facts suggesting you will not store guns carefully also rule out reliability (§ 5 Abs. 1 Nr. 2 Buchstabe b).

If you fall short when you apply, the Waffenbehörde refuses the permit: every condition in WaffG § 4 Abs. 1 must be met.

A permit must be revoked when facts arise later that would have required a refusal (WaffG § 45 Abs. 2). If your need lapses only for a time, the authority may refrain from revoking, and for special reasons even when it has lapsed for good (§ 45 Abs. 3). If you leave your club, the club must report it (§ 15 Abs. 5).

After a revocation you must return the card. The authority orders you to make the guns permanently unusable or to hand them to someone entitled to have them within a reasonable time, and seizes them if you do not (WaffG § 46 Abs. 1–2). If you name no one ready to take them within a month of the seizure, it may confiscate and sell or destroy them; any proceeds, less its costs, go to you (§ 46 Abs. 7).

An objection or a lawsuit against a revocation for lack of reliability or suitability does not suspend it (WaffG § 45 Abs. 5).

The Shooter app counts, for each gun, the days on which you fired at least the number of shots you set for an approved session, in a window that ends on the gun’s next activity deadline, against a number of sessions you set. Outside Sweden both start unset, and nothing is counted for a gun until you set them. Separately, it counts the days on which you marked a session as a club session, with any gun, air guns included, over a window back from today.

For the five-yearly check, set the shots for an approved session; the WSV counts the shots of half a programme. It is one figure for all your guns, while a half programme differs between disciplines: set the largest that applies, so the app counts no day with fewer shots than the WSV asks for. Enter the date you expect the Waffenbehörde to ask for proof as the next activity deadline of a gun in each category, and set six sessions in a 12-month window. The law counts per category and the app per gun, so if you share your sessions between two handguns, each may look short while the category is met. The app counts one window: it does not check each of the two years, or every quarter.

For buying a gun, set the club requirement to 18 occasions in 12 months, and mark as club sessions only days on which you shot at least half a programme with a licensable gun, since the WSV, for one, does not count licence-free air guns. The app does not check that every month has a session, or how the 18 are spread.

It exports a PDF logbook of your sessions. The logbook prints no discipline numbers, which an association may ask for, so it backs up your Schießbuch and your club’s record rather than replacing them.

Shooter is not affiliated with any Waffenbehörde or with any shooting association. The certificate is your association’s decision, and the permit is the Waffenbehörde’s.

Do I need 12 or 18 sessions a year?

To buy a gun, you need one of two patterns in the last 12 months, after at least 12 months of shooting in the club: a session in every whole month, or 18 sessions in all (WaffG § 14 Abs. 3 Satz 1 Nr. 1–2). Twelve sessions are enough only if each falls in a different month. The law does not say how the 18 are spread; the Bundestag committee wrote of 18 times spread over the year, and the WSV asks for the first at the start of the 12 months and no bunching at its start or end.

Do sessions with club guns count?

To buy, the law asks for shooting with licensable firearms in a club and does not say they must be yours (WaffG § 14 Abs. 3 Satz 1 Nr. 1). At the five-yearly check, it must be a licensable gun of your own, in each category you hold, so a licence-free air gun does not count (§ 14 Abs. 4); the WSV does not count club guns or borrowed guns there either.

What does the five-yearly check ask for?

That your need continues (WaffG § 4 Abs. 4). The association, or its Teilverband, certifies that in the 24 months before the check you shot in a club with a licensable gun of your own at least once every three months, or six times “innerhalb eines abgeschlossenen Zeitraums von jeweils zwölf Monaten”, for long guns and handguns separately if you hold both (§ 14 Abs. 4). The WSV reads that as: in each of the two twelve-month periods before the check you shot in a club with a licensable gun of your own at least once every three months or at least six times, for long guns and handguns separately if you hold both.

Do I have to prove my shooting forever?

By the law’s words, no. Once ten years have passed since your first gun was entered on a Waffenbesitzkarte, or since your first ammunition permit was issued, membership of a shooting club in a recognised association, shown by the club’s certificate, is enough for the five-yearly check (WaffG § 14 Abs. 4 Satz 3). The checks themselves go on every five years (§ 4 Abs. 4). The need to own a gun beyond the basic quota, and not only to buy it, rests on the association’s certificate (WaffG § 14 Abs. 5: “Erwerb und Besitz”), and a service page released by the Landratsamt Ludwigsburg says the need must be shown for each such gun. The WSV, for one, asks at every five-yearly check for at least one competition start a year with each gun beyond the basic quota, at a club championship or higher, over the two years before; in its practice the ten-year rule does not lift that. The BDS, another recognised association, criticises the counting for guns beyond the basic quota after decades of shooting as a Baden-Württemberg practice.

How many guns may I own as a sport shooter?

Three semi-automatic long guns and two multi-shot handguns as the basic quota; to buy and own more of those kinds, each gun needs the association’s certificate of a further discipline or of competition use, and regular competition (WaffG § 14 Abs. 5). The yellow card allows up to ten long guns without a magazine (any number of barrels), manually operated repeating rifles, single-shot single-barrel handguns for cartridges (not revolvers), and multi-shot percussion guns (§ 14 Abs. 6). As a rule, no more than two guns within six months (§ 14 Abs. 3 Satz 2).

Do I need a licence for an air rifle in Germany?

Not to buy or own one if you are 18 or over and it gives its projectiles no more than 7.5 joules and bears the F-in-a-pentagon mark, or it was made before 1970, or in the former East Germany before 2 April 1991, and sold under the rules of the day (WaffG § 2 Abs. 1, 2 and 4; Anlage 2 Abschnitt 2 Unterabschnitt 2 Nr. 1.1–1.2). Any other air rifle needs a Waffenbesitzkarte, and so, since 24 July 2025, does one whose mark the PTB confirmed, or a proof house applied, on or after that day, if by its construction it is multi-shot for projectiles longer than 30 mm. Read word for word, the 2025 wording would also take the exemption from guns whose mark was confirmed or applied earlier, new guns of older models included; the Bundestag’s interior committee and the federal government say conventional air guns are not affected, and no correction has been published. Carrying one outside your own home, business premises, enclosed property or a range needs a Waffenschein, save for the law’s exceptions, such as transport unloaded and not ready to hand for a purpose your Bedürfnis covers (§ 10 Abs. 4; § 12 Abs. 3; Anlage 1 Abschnitt 2 Nr. 4). Without a shooting permit, save for a few special cases, you may shoot only on a range or, with a rifle of no more than 7.5 joules, on enclosed property by or with the consent of whoever holds its Hausrecht (the right to decide who may be there), if the projectiles cannot leave it (§ 12 Abs. 4).

Why do I need a psychological report?

Anyone under 25 applying for a first permit to buy and own a firearm must bring a report on mental suitability from a public health officer, a specialist doctor or a specialist psychologist, at their own cost (WaffG § 6 Abs. 3). It is not needed for .22 l.r. rimfire guns of up to 200 joules or smooth-bore long guns of 12 gauge or smaller that have no magazine and are loaded by hand before each shot, over-and-under and side-by-side shotguns included (§ 14 Abs. 1 Satz 2), nor for hunters (§ 13 Abs. 2 Satz 1).

What if I leave my club?

The club must tell the Waffenbehörde (WaffG § 15 Abs. 5). A sport shooter’s need rests on membership of a club in a recognised association (§ 14 Abs. 2): if you join no other, the need is gone and the permit must be revoked, though when the need lapses only for a time the authority may refrain (§ 45 Abs. 2–3).

What does a Waffenbesitzkarte cost?

Each Land sets its own fees. In Berlin a sport shooter’s green card with the first permit to buy costs €87, or €112 beyond the basic quota, and the yellow card €107. Under North Rhine-Westphalia’s fee ordinance as amended in May 2024, either card costs €50. The association may charge for its certificate as well.

How many shots make a session?

WaffG § 14 names no number. What counts is shooting under the fixed rules of an approved Sportordnung (§ 15a Abs. 1). In the WSV’s practice, a session counts when you fire at least the shots of half a programme of a discipline, and no more than one counts a day; at the five-yearly check, one a day for each category.