2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-FIVE - Internal Security (§§ 1 — 3356) › Subtitle 1 - Generally (§§ 1 — 1973) › PART V - Regulation of Firearms, Explosives, and Other Dangerous Devices (§§ 411-454 — 593) › Chapter 51A - Puerto Rico Arms Act of 2000 (§§ 455 — 460k) › Subchapter II - Licenses and Regulations (§§ 456 — 456o) › § 456k - Registry of weapons; loss, surrender or transfer of firearms; death of the license holder

(a) The registry of weapons created in the general police headquarters shall be adjusted in its organization and performance to the provisions of this chapter, and shall be kept in a computerized, systematic and orderly fashion so that the search for information can be expedited. This registry must be duly safeguarded.
(b) Any legally owned firearm after this act becomes effective, shall be registered in the registry of weapons, in the event that it has not previously been registered. The Superintendent shall hand the affiant a certificate of said registration.
(c) Any person who owns or has a legally authorized weapon or ammunition under his/her control and loses the same, or the same disappears, or is stolen or is illegally appropriated, shall notify this fact by filing a complaint at the police district or precinct in which he/she resides, or at the nearest police station, immediately upon becoming aware of the loss, disappearance, theft or illegal appropriation. If he/she does not comply with this obligation, he/she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, if convicted, shall be punished with a fine of up to a maximum of five thousand dollars ($5,000) per weapon or per every five hundred (500) rounds of ammunition, or fraction thereof, that he/she failed to report.
The Superintendent shall investigate every loss, disappearance, theft or illegal appropriation report, and shall keep a detailed register of the result of the same for the purpose of gathering statistics on the loss, disappearance, theft or illegal appropriation of weapons or ammunition reports. If the information submitted by the complainant is intentionally false, the Superintendent shall notify this fact to the Department of Justice for the filing of criminal charges.
(d) When a person who is duly authorized to possess weapons dies, it shall be the duty of every administrator, executor, or trustee, or any of these who acts as such in Puerto Rico, and of any assistant administrator, agent or person who is legally authorized to administer the estate, to notify the Superintendent of the demise within thirty (30) days from the date of death. The notification shall state the name, residence and personal details of the deceased. Failure to notify this fact shall constitute a misdemeanor and shall be punished with the payment of a fine that shall not exceed five hundred dollars ($500). The Superintendent shall establish what is needed to receive, store, or provide custody of said weapons, which may be done by a person with a weapons license or a gun shop designated by the administrator, executor or trustee and/or disposal of said weapons, while the inheritance is distributed. If the weapons are adjudicated to an heir who is eligible to obtain a weapons license and said license is issued to him/her, said weapon or weapons shall be given to him/her; Provided, That if said heir owns the maximum number of weapons permitted in this chapter, the Superintendent shall grant an authorization to possess the weapons acquired though inheritance, according to the form established by the Superintendent through regulations. If said license is denied, or the sale of said weapon at public auction is indicated, it may only be acquired by a person with a weapons license in force, by public auction, or by a gunsmith duly authorized by this chapter, and if it is not thus acquired, said weapon shall be delivered to the Superintendent to be confiscated as provided in this chapter. Provided, further, That the Superintendent shall not deliver any weapon that, prior to the death of its owner, was not duly registered pursuant to subsection (b) of this section.
(e) Any acquisition, purchase, sale, donation, assignment or any other means of transferring the ownership of a firearm or ammunition, must be conducted before a person with a gunsmith license so as to be properly registered in the electronic register and in the books of the latter, pursuant to the provisions of § 456i of this title. The aforementioned means of ownership transfer may also be conducted between licensees through the weapons transfer forms provided by the Superintendent within the five (5) days following the issue thereof, so it may be duly noted and corrected in the electronic register.
History —Sept. 11, 2000, No. 404, § 2.12; Jan. 10, 2002, No. 27, § 10; June 3, 2004, No. 137, § 9.