Can You Own Guns in Greece? Licenses, Hunting, and Penalties

You can own a gun in Greece, but only under a strict licensing system that treats firearm ownership as a regulated privilege rather than a right. Gun ownership in Greece is governed primarily by Law 2168/1993 and, since 2025, by Law 5187/2025, which reclassified illegal possession as a felony. Civilian ownership is limited to a narrow set of approved purposes, chiefly hunting and competitive sport shooting, and every applicant must clear a background check, a psychiatric evaluation, and a documented reason for wanting the weapon.¹

Who Qualifies for a Firearm License

Four conditions have to be met before Greek authorities will even review an application.

Age. The minimum is 18 for hunting shotguns. Sport-shooting handguns and rifles are typically restricted to applicants 21 and older.
Clean criminal record. Convictions for felonies, drug offenses, organized crime, terrorism, or domestic violence under Law 3500/2006 disqualify you. Authorities verify this through a Type I criminal record extract.²
Mental fitness. A psychiatrist must certify that you do not have a major mental disorder or a serious personality disorder. The certificate is a mandatory part of the file.²
Legitimate purpose. Active membership in a hunting organization, enrollment in a sport-shooting federation, or, rarely, a documented self-defense need. General interest or vague home protection does not qualify.

You also need to be a legal resident of Greece, with a Greek home address and valid national ID or passport details on the application.

What Firearms Civilians Can Actually Own

Greek law follows the EU Firearms Directive, which classifies weapons from Category A (most restricted) through Category D (least restricted).³ For civilians, the practical list is short.

Hunting shotguns are the most accessible category: single-barrel and double-barrel smoothbore shotguns, over one meter in overall length, with a maximum capacity of three rounds. A shotgun can be purchased without a pre-existing license, but the buyer must register it at the local police station and apply for a shotgun permit within one month.

Sport-shooting rifles and handguns are available only to members of recognized sport-shooting federations, and the license is tied both to the specific firearm and to documented participation in competition.

Collectibles, historical relics, and family heirlooms can be imported and held under a separate permit issued through a dedicated procedure.⁴

Automatic firearms, machine guns, submachine guns, hand grenades, and military-grade equipment are flatly banned for civilians. Even holding ammunition for these weapons carries serious criminal exposure.

Hunting Guns: the Most Common Route

Hunting is the single most common lawful reason for firearm ownership in Greece, and the rules around it are narrow on purpose. Only smoothbore shotguns without optical sights are approved for hunting. Bows are also permitted. Rifled firearms, scoped weapons, and semi-automatic shotguns holding more than three rounds are not legal for the field.

Two documents are required to hunt legally: a shotgun permit and a separate hunting license. Possessing an unregistered shotgun or rifle without a valid permit can bring up to four months of imprisonment before any of the heavier penalty tiers come into play.

Self-Defense Permits Are Rare

Permits for self-defense exist on paper but are almost never issued. You have to show a specific, ongoing, documented threat to your life that cannot be addressed any other way. General worry about crime does not meet the standard, and Greek officials have publicly confirmed that any self-defense ownership is confined to the home. If your goal is to carry a firearm for personal protection in daily life, Greece is one of the harder countries in Europe in which to get approval.

How to Apply

Applications go to the local police station, a Country Security Sub-Directorate, or, for some procedures, a Point of Single Contact (KEP).⁵ The form asks for your full personal details, the type of firearm you want, and your stated reason for ownership.²

You submit the application together with your criminal record extract, the psychiatrist’s certificate, and proof supporting your stated purpose, such as membership in a hunting or sport-shooting organization. Depending on the firearm type, you may also need to complete a gun safety course and pass a practical shooting test.

The official processing deadline is four months from submission.⁵ Most of that time goes to the background check and inter-agency coordination. The psychiatric certificate has to be refreshed if more than three years have passed since it was issued.

Storage and Transport

Firearms must be stored so that no unauthorized person can reach them. The weapon should be kept unloaded and, where practical, disassembled, with ammunition stored separately. The law does not name a specific brand or model of safe, but the standard is functional: if someone other than the license holder can easily get to the weapon, you are in violation.

Transport is only lawful when you are traveling directly between your home and a permitted activity, such as a hunting ground or an approved range. The firearm must be unloaded and carried in a secure case. Detours or unrelated stops create legal exposure, so treat any trip with a firearm as a straight-line journey.

Penalties for Illegal Possession

Law 5187/2025 substantially increased penalties, building on Law 2168/1993.¹ Illegal possession or transport of a firearm is now a felony rather than a misdemeanor. The main tiers:

Illegal possession, transport, or facilitating access to combat rifles, machine guns, or heavy weapons: imprisonment plus fines of €30,000 to €150,000.
Carrying a weapon into schools, airports, ports, military facilities, police stations, correctional facilities, religious sites, or public transport: up to eight years in prison and fines of €20,000 to €100,000.
Possessing a firearm at weddings, fairs, festivals, and similar large gatherings: felony treatment.
Unnecessary discharge of a weapon or illegal use of explosives: minimum two-year prison sentence and fines of €2,000 to €50,000.
Repeat offenders previously convicted under Law 2168/1993: up to ten years for a subsequent offense, with prison terms for multiple convictions now cumulative rather than concurrent.

Administrative penalties tightened as well. Applying late for a hunting gun license can trigger a fine up to ten times the original licensing fee. Prosecutors can also issue protective orders requiring a person to surrender legal weapons and stay away from others involved in a dispute; these orders last six months and can be extended.

The 2025 Voluntary Surrender Window

The 2025 reforms opened a voluntary surrender program aimed at getting unregistered and illegal weapons off the street before enforcement steps up. If you hand in a firearm to police during the designated surrender window, you are exempt from criminal prosecution for the prior illegal possession. This is a one-time amnesty tied to the rollout of Law 5187/2025, and the government has signaled that large-scale inspections will follow. If there is an inherited or unregistered weapon in your home, the surrender window is the safest way to resolve it without felony exposure.

Bringing a Firearm Into Greece From the EU

Greece is bound by the Firearms Directive (EU) 2021/555, which replaced the original 1991 directive and its 2017 revision and sets minimum standards across the bloc for acquiring, holding, and transferring civilian weapons. Hunters and sport shooters traveling between EU countries can use a European Firearms Pass, which lets them bring their registered firearms across borders without a separate import permit for each country. The pass is issued by the license holder’s home country and must list every weapon being carried. Greece’s contact point for cross-border firearm transfers is the Firearms and Explosives Department at Hellenic Police Headquarters in Athens.³

1
General Directorate for Defense Investments and Armaments. Law 2168/1993 Regulations Concerning Weapons Ammunition Explosives Etc
2
National Registry of Administrative Public Services. Licence to Purchase and Transport Firearms and Essential Components if the Transport Takes Place Within the Country
3
European Commission. EU Legislation on Civilian Firearms
4
National Registry of Administrative Public Services. Import Permit for Weapons or Objects Classified as Collectibles, Historical Relics, or Family Heirlooms
5
EUGO. Licence to Trade in Firearms and Related Items