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 I - Preliminary Provisions (§ 455) › § 455 - Definitions

For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the meaning stated below:
(a) Law enforcement officer.— Means any member or officer of the Government of Puerto Rico or of the United States of America, as well as any other political subdivision of Puerto Rico or the United States, among whose duties are to make arrests, including, but without being limited to the members of the Rangers Corps of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, the Puerto Rico Police, Deputy Police, Municipal Police, investigating agents of the Special Investigations Bureau of the Department of Justice, Custodial Officials of the Corrections Administration, the custodial officials of the Pretrial Services Office, the National Guard while in official duty or practice, the Custodial Officials of the Juvenile Institutions Administration, the Internal Security Corps of the Ports Authority, the Director of the Drugs and Narcotics Control Division and the Controlled Substances Inspectors of the Mental Health and Addiction Services Administration, the investigating agents of the Deputy Secretary Investigations Office of the Corrections System of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and the Inspectors of the Public Service Commission, as well as the Marshals of the General Court of Justice of Puerto Rico and of the federal court with jurisdiction throughout Puerto Rico, and the Internal Revenue Inspectors of the Department of the Treasury.
(b) Machine gun or automatic weapon.— Means a weapon of any description, regardless of its size and of the name by which it is designated or known, either loaded or unloaded, that is capable of firing a rapid and repeated or automatic stream of bullets contained in a magazine, ammunition belt or other receptacle, by a single pull of the trigger. The term “machine gun” also includes a submachine gun, as well as any other firearm provided with a magazine to automatically fire all or part of the bullets or ammunition contained in the magazine, belt or any combination of the parts of a firearm, destined to, and with the intention of converting, modifying or altering said weapon to make it a machine gun.
(c) Weapon.— Means any firearm, blade, or any other type of weapon regardless of its denomination.
(d) Sidearm.— Means a stabbing, cutting or thrusting weapon (cold steel) that can be used as an instrument of aggression capable of inflicting grave bodily injury.
(e) Firearm.— Means any weapon, regardless of the name by which it is known, designed to be or which may easily be converted to be, or which is capable of firing a round or rounds of ammunition by an explosive charge. This definition does not include working tools such as, but not limited to, nail guns, when used for work, in the arts or a trade.
(f) Rifle.— Means any shotgun, rifle or firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder.
(g) Pneumatic weapon.— Means any weapon, regardless of the name by which it is known, that through the discharge of gas or a mixture of compressed gases, is capable of firing one (1) or more projectiles.
(h)
(1) Antique firearm.— Means any firearm with a rifle matchlock, flintlock, or percussion cap mechanism made in or before 1898, or
(2) any replica of a firearm described in clause (1) above, if said replica:
(A) Is not designed or redesigned to use rimfire or conventional centerfire ammunition.
(B) Uses rimfire or conventional centerfire ammunition no longer made in the United States and which cannot be found through normal and ordinary business channels.
(C) Any muzzle loading rifle, muzzle loading shotgun or muzzle loading pistol designed to be used with black gunpowder, or a substitute of black gunpowder, and which is unable to fire fixed ammunition. For the purposes of this clause, the term “antique firearm” shall not include any firearm that includes a frame or receiver, any firearm converted into a muzzle loading weapon, or any muzzle loading weapon that may be converted to be capable of firing fixed ammunition by means replacing the barrel, the bolt, the breech lock, or any combination thereof.
(D) The term “fixed ammunition” shall mean that which is completely assembled, meaning it is equipped with casing, gun powder, primer and slug.
(i) Gunsmith.— Means any natural or juridical person who, on his/her own or through agents or employees, purchases, or introduces for sale, changes, exchanges, offers for sale or displays for sale, or has for sale in his/her business establishment, any firearm or ammunition, or who performs any mechanical or cosmetic work for a third party on any firearm or ammunition.
(j) Armor piercing— Means a projectile that can be used in a handgun that is constructed entirely (excluding the presence or traces of other substances) or of a combination of an alloy of tungsten, steel, iron, tin, bronze, cupric beryllium or degraded uranium; or a fully-shielded, greater than twenty-two (22) caliber bullet, designed and intended to be used in a handgun and whose shielding weighs more than twenty-five percent of its total weight. It excludes the shotgun ammunition required by federal or state environmental laws or hunting regulations for such purposes, a disintegrating bullet designed for target shooting, a projectile whose primary use determined by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States for sports purposes, or any other projectile or nucleus of a projectile in which said Secretary finds that its main use is for industrial purposes, including a charge used in the digging of oil or gas wells.
(k) Home.— Is the part of a building that is used or occupied by a single person or family.
(l) Committee.— Means the Interagency Committee to Fight the Illegal Trafficking of Weapons, established in this chapter.
(m) Shotgun.— Means a long-barreled firearm with one or more smooth bores, designed to be fired from the shoulder, which can fire cartridges of one (1) or more shots. It may be fed manually, or by a magazine or receptacle, and may be fired manually, automatically or semiautomatically. This definition includes sawed-off shotguns with barrels of less than 18 inches in length.
(n) Sports shooting federation.— Means any federation attached to the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee that represents the Olympic target shooting sport.
(o) [Weapons] license.— Is the license issued by the Superintendent that authorizes the concessionaire to possess, carry and transport arms and ammunition, and, depending on their category, to carry firearms, target shooting or hunting.
(p) Ammunition.— Means any bullet, cartridge, projectile, pellet, or any load that is placed or can be placed in a firearm to be fired.
(q) Pistol.— Is any firearm that does not have a cylinder, which is fed manually or by a magazine, is not designed to be fired from the shoulder, and is capable of being fired semiautomatically or one shot at a time, depending on its class.
(r) Police.— Means the Puerto Rico Police.
(s) Carry.— Means the immediate possession or physical holding of a weapon, loaded or unloaded, on the person of the carrier, it being also understood when a weapon is not being transported pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.
(t) Revolver.— Means any firearm that has a revolving cylinder with several chambers, which, by pulling the trigger or setting the hammer, are aligned with the barrel, placing the bullet in a position to be fired.
(u) Rifle.— Means any firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, which fires one or more projectiles. It may be fed manually or automatically by a magazine or removable receptacle and fired manually or semiautomatically. The word “rifle” also includes the word “carbine”.
(v) Secretary.— Means the Secretary of the Sports and Recreation Department.
(w) Superintendent.— Means the Puerto Rico Police Superintendent.
(x) Transportation.— Means the mediate or immediate possession of a weapon for the purpose of taking it from one place to another. Said transportation must be carried out by a person with a current weapons license and the weapon must be unloaded and transported inside a closed case whose contents are not visible and which may not be in plain sight.
(y) Vehicle.— Is any means for the transport of persons or goods on land, sea or air.
(z) Category change.— Means to incorporate permits to a firearms license, regardless of its category, carrying, hunting or target shooting.
History —Sept. 11, 2000, No. 404, § 1.02; Jan. 10, 2002, No. 27, § 1; June 3, 2004, No. 137, § 1.