In the United Kingdom, gun ownership is considered a privilege, not a right, and access by the general public to firearms is subject to strict control. Members of the public may own certain firearms for the purposes of sport shooting, recreation, hunting or occupational purposes, subject to licensing.

There is a uniform system of firearms licensing across Great Britain (with an additional airgun licensing scheme in Scotland), and a separate system for Northern Ireland. All firearms are registered.

As of 2026, there were 564,690 licensed firearm owners in the United Kingdom, holding approximately 2.39 million firearms.

Great Britain Licensing With a few exceptions, all firearms must be licensed on either a five-year firearm certificate (FAC) or a shotgun certificate (SGC) issued by the police for the area in which they normally reside. Each certificate can list multiple firearms.Home Office Statistical Bulletin: Firearm certificates, England and Wales, 2004/05 Shotguns thus defined are subject to a less rigorous certification process than for the full FAC; an applicant is not required by law to make a good case for being granted a certificate, but the police may withhold a certificate if they consider that the applicant does not have satisfactory security in place, or granting it would constitute a danger to public safety or to the peace. A certificate holder may possess as many shotguns as can be securely stored.

When applying for a firearm certificate, justification must be provided to the police for each firearm, and they are individually listed on the certificate by type, calibre, and serial number. A shotgun certificate similarly lists type, calibre and serial number, but permits possession of as many shotguns as can be safely accommodated. To gain permission for a new firearm, a "variation" must be sought, for a fee, unless the variation is made at the time of renewal, or unless it constitutes a one-for-one replacement of an existing firearm that will be disposed of. The certificate also sets out, by calibre, the maximum quantities of ammunition someone may possess at any one time, and is used to record ammunition purchases (except where ammunition is bought to use immediately on a range under section 11 or section 15 of the Firearms Act 1968).

To obtain a firearm certificate, the police must be satisfied that a person has "good reason" to own each firearm, and that they can be trusted with it "without danger to the public safety or to the peace". Under Home Office guidelines, firearm certificates are only issued if a person has legitimate sporting, collecting, or work-related reasons for ownership. Since 1937, self-defence has not been considered a valid reason to own a firearm. The current licensing procedure involves: positive verification of identity, two referees of verifiable good character who have known the applicant for at least two years (and who may themselves be interviewed and/or investigated as part of the certification), approval of the application by the applicant's own family doctor, an inspection of the premises and cabinet where firearms will be kept and a face-to-face interview by a firearms enquiry officer (FEO), also known as a firearms liaison officer (FLO). Only when all these stages have been satisfactorily completed will a licence be issued, which must be renewed every five years.

Any person who has been sentenced to between three months and three years in prison is automatically prohibited from possessing firearms (including airguns) and ammunition for five years from release. A person who has been sentenced to more than three years is prohibited for life. Application may be made to a court to reverse these prohibitions and this is likely to be successful in relation to convictions for crimes which do not relate to a person's fitness to possess firearms. Similarly, persons applying for licences with recent, serious mental health issues will also be refused a certificate.

Any person holding a firearm or shotgun certificate must comply with strict storage conditions by storing their firearms/shotguns in a safe bolted to the floor or wall that complies to the standard BS 7558:1992. These storage arrangements are checked by the police before a licence is first granted, and on every renewal of the licence.

In the case of a firearm certificate the issuing police force may impose additional conditions over and above the statutory ones. However any condition appended to a certificate must be reasonable and must not be of such a restrictive nature as would amount to a constructive refusal to grant the certificate by making use so unlikely as to be practically impossible. Failure to comply with any of these conditions can result in criminal prosecution resulting in a prison sentence of up to six months. Revocation of the certificate is also possible, depending upon the nature of the breach. A visitor's permit is available for possession of firearms without certificate by visitors to the UK.

The penalty for possession of any type of firearm without a certificate is a maximum of 14 years in prison and an unlimited fine. The penalty for section 5 categories of firearm is subject to a mandatory minimum of five years. (The sentencing judge has discretion to depart from the minimum sentence if there are "exceptional circumstances".) The Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 increased restrictions on the use, possession, sale and manufacture of both airguns and imitation firearms.

Definitions Section 57 of the Firearms Act 1968 defines a firearm as:

A lethal barrelled weapon, meaning a barrelled weapon of any description from which a shot, bullet or other missile, with kinetic energy of more than 1 joule at the muzzle of the weapon, can be discharged (with an exception for airsoft guns) A prohibited weapon A relevant component part, namely a: Barrel, chamber or cylinder Frame, body or receiver Breech block, bolt or other mechanism for containing the pressure of discharge at the rear of a chamber

A shotgun is defined as a smooth-bore gun (which is not an air gun) and:

Has a barrel not less than 24 inches in length and does not have any barrel with a bore exceeding 2 inches in diameter Either has no magazine or has a non-detachable magazine incapable of holding more than two cartridges Is not a revolver gun

Prohibited weapons These weapons are subject to general prohibition under section 5 of the Firearms Act 1968:

Automatic or burst-fire firearms Semi-automatic or pump-action rifled guns other than those chambered for .22 rimfire cartridges Manually actuated release system rifles (MARS) and lever release rifles (not to be confused with lever action). Most handguns (firearms with a barrel length under or overall length under ), other than muzzle loading handguns and handguns that are air weapons (neither of which have minimum length thresholds). Firearms disguised as another item (e.g. walking sticks, mobile telephones, etc.). Rockets and mortars. Air guns chambered for self-contained gas cartridges. (Existing owners prior to 20 January 2004 were allowed ownership subject to obtaining a firearm certificate.) Any weapon of whatever description designed or adapted for the discharge of any noxious liquid, gas or other substance. This would generally include stun guns, or electric shock devices, CS gas (tear gas), OC spray (pepper spray), etc. Cattle prods would not generally be included, but it would depend on the type.

Firearms which previously fell into a prohibited category cannot be made legal by conversion to an otherwise permitted form. For example, a pistol which is adapted by permanently fitting a long smooth-bore barrel to it does not thereby become permitted.

Rifles UK law does not provide a statutory definition for a "rifle". Most long firearms with rifled barrels will – by default – be classified as Section 1, and can be held on a firearm certificate. This includes single-shot; bolt-action; Martini-action; lever-action (also called under-lever action); and revolver rifles in any calibre. Self-loading and pump-action rifles are only permitted in .22 rimfire calibre.

Handguns The 1997 acts (see below) do not ban pistols as such and are drafted in terms of "short firearms". These acts prohibit firearms with a barrel shorter than or an overall length less than In practice this includes most pistols and revolvers, with the exception of those that are air weapons, muzzle-loading (pistols and revolvers) or signalling apparatus.

A wide variety of black powder muzzle-loading handguns can still be possessed in Great Britain, plus a small number of muzzle-loading smokeless powder pistols and revolvers (in various calibres) are manufactured, such as the Westlake Taurus and Alfa Proj .357 muzzle-loading revolvers. All other handguns are mostly prohibited in Great Britain, with some exceptions such as those used for the humane dispatch of injured animals (such as deer) and some historical firearms.

That law created a new market for "long-barrelled revolvers" and "long-barrelled pistols", firearms with a permanently attached extension to the grip, with overall dimensions larger than those prohibited. Long-barrelled pistols in single-shot, or long-barrelled revolvers, both of any calibre, or semi-automatic in .22 rimfire, are all permitted with a firearm certificate. This correspondence culminated in classifying a semi-automatic .22 long-barrelled pistol as section 1 (permitted) rather than section 5 (forbidden).

Pistol shooting for sporting purposes was effectively banned in 1997, although a temporary exemption was made for competitors to bring section 5 firearms into the UK for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. This exemption only applied to the Games period and Home Nation pistol shooters had to train abroad prior to the Games. Ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games, Tessa Jowell (Minister for the Olympics) and the Home Secretary agreed to use Home Office powers to issue a small number of section 5 permits to elite pistol shooters nominated by British Shooting. With Glasgow winning the right to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games, this arrangement was extended beyond the Olympics, with a small number of UK ranges licensed for section 5 shooting.

A few models of ISSF 50 meter pistol (also known as "Free Pistol") have been produced which exceed the defined dimensions for prohibited "short firearms" and qualify as section 1 firearms. Some free pistols offered removable stabiliser bars; UK-legal models are manufactured with stabilisers permanently fixed. Examples include the single-shot Pardini K22 Longarm and the five-shot Westlake Britarms Long Pistol.

Antique handguns that fall under definitions in Section 58(2) of the Firearms Act 1968 may be owned privately as a "curiosity or ornament" without a license and therefore can be transferred without restrictions. The owner is not to acquire ammunition for it under these terms. Section 126 of the Policing and Crime Act 2017 and the Antique Firearms Regulations 2021 add further details regarding antique firearms. The Antique Firearms Regulations 2021 added several cartridges to the government's official comprehensive list of obsolete ammunition, whilst simultaneously revoking certain black powder centerfire revolver cartridges such as .41 Long Colt, .44 Russian, and .442 Webley due to reported criminal use of legally acquired antique firearms with corresponding ammunition for them.

Readily-convertible firearms