Gun Law changes in Serbia
On 14 February 2019, the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted the amendments to the Law on Weapons and Ammunition (the „Law“), published in the Official Gazette No. 10/2019 dated 15 February 2019, effective eight days after publishing in the Official Gazette.
The adopted changes concern the extension of the deadline for filing a request for the issue of the weapons permit under the applicable law for all natural persons who possessed weapons permit for carrying weapons for personal security as well as all legal persons and entrepreneurs who possessed weapons permit issued under the previously applicable Law. The previous deadline was March 5 2019, specified when the Law was adopted in 2016, and with the adopted changes the deadline is extended to March 5, 2020.
The objective of the amendments is to provide sufficiently long deadline for legal arms owners to adjust their obligations. The deadline is extended since it is found in the records of the Serbian Ministry of Interior that a large number of weapon owners did not apply for a permit in accordance with the provisions of the Law.
This amendment provides the necessary condition for the full implementation of the Law.
Namely, when adopting the Law in 2016, the weapon owners were given a deadline of 3 years to file a request for the issue of a permit according to the newly adopted Law