Yes, guns are legal in Argentina for civilians who go through the licensing process. Ownership is regulated by the National Agency of Controlled Materials (ANMaC), and the gateway is a Legitimate User Card (CLU) that clears you to buy handguns, shotguns, rifles, and, since a 2025 decree, certain semi-automatic firearms. Carrying a gun in public is a separate matter, and that permission is granted rarely.
What Civilians Can and Cannot Own
Argentine law sorts firearms into civilian-use, conditional civilian-use, and war weapons. Most handguns, shotguns, and standard rifles fall into the civilian bucket. Higher-caliber weapons sit in the conditional tier and require extra justification. Fully automatic firearms, explosives, and military-grade hardware are war weapons, and civilians cannot own them.
A 2025 decree signed by President Milei reversed a ban that had stood since 1995. Permit holders can now buy and possess semi-automatic firearms with detachable magazines, including models similar to assault rifles, carbines, and submachine guns, in calibers above .22 LR. Buyers have to demonstrate sporting use and meet additional objective conditions on top of the standard permit requirements. The same wave of reforms raised the civilian ownership cap from four registered firearms to six.
Modifying a legal firearm to change its classification, for example converting a semi-automatic to fully automatic, remains a criminal offense.
Who Qualifies for a Legitimate User Card
You need a CLU (sometimes written CLUSE) before you can buy anything. The requirements:
- At least 18 years old. The minimum was lowered from 21 in December 2024.
- A clean judicial background certificate.
- A psychophysical aptitude certificate from an approved examiner.
- A shooting proficiency certificate from an authorized instructor.
- Proof of a legitimate source of income.
- A declaration of where the firearm will be stored at home.
Every supporting document must be dated within 60 days of your application. Anything older, and you redo that piece.
How the Application Works
Applications run through ANMaC’s online platform, MiANMaC. Resolution 45/2025 formalized a digital procedure that stripped out much of the in-person bureaucracy. You submit the application, upload documentation, and pay fees through the platform, which links to the MiArgentina app for issuing digital credentials.
Once submitted, your application stays valid for 60 days. You still have to present original documents at a designated ANMaC service center for verification. ANMaC runs automated background checks against criminal records and security force databases.
Getting the CLU is only the first step. Each firearm you buy has to be individually registered through a process called Tenencia. The 2025 digitization introduced Tenencia Express, which handles registration entirely through MiANMaC. The system also manages your Ammunition Consumption Card (TCCM), which tracks legal ammunition purchases; without a valid TCCM, authorized dealers will not sell you ammunition.
Carrying vs. Transporting: The Distinction That Matters
A CLU lets you own a gun. It does not let you carry one in public. A carrying permit is a separate authorization, and ANMaC issues them sparingly, almost exclusively to security professionals and individuals who can document an exceptional, specific threat to their safety. Applications require everything the CLU demands plus a detailed written justification. Carrying permits last one year, and renewal means resubmitting every document from scratch. Most civilian owners will never hold one.
Transporting is different from carrying. CLU holders can move firearms to authorized locations such as shooting ranges or hunting grounds, but the weapon must be unloaded, kept separate from ammunition, and, for vehicle transport, secured in a locked case. A loaded weapon in transit without a carrying permit is treated the same as an unregistered one.
Rules for Foreign Visitors
Tourists can bring firearms into Argentina for hunting or sport shooting, but only with advance authorization arranged through an Argentine consulate before travel. You will need a valid passport, hunting license, proof of firearm ownership, a travel itinerary, and a passport-size photo.
The consulate issues a sealed authorization form to present at the border. By mail, the fee is USD 60 per form, and each form covers up to three firearms. In-person consulate processing costs USD 80. If you arrive without authorization, border police can issue a temporary permit on the spot subject to ANMaC approval, but the file describes relying on this as risky.1Argentina.gob.ar. Foreigners or Argentinians Settled Abroad Bearing Firearms
One boundary worth stating plainly: tourists cannot import a firearm for personal protection. Temporary imports are limited to hunting or sport shooting at ANMaC-approved locations.2Argentina.gob.ar. Issuance of Authorization to Import Firearms and Ammunition Into Argentine Territory
Penalties for Getting It Wrong
Article 189 bis of the Penal Code, as amended by Law No. 25,886, sets the following ranges:
- Possessing a civilian-use firearm without authorization: 6 months to 2 years in prison, plus a fine.
- Possessing a war weapon without authorization: 2 to 6 years.
- Carrying a civilian-use firearm without authorization: 1 to 4 years.
- Carrying a war weapon without authorization: 3 years and 6 months to 8 years and 6 months.
- Selling or transferring a firearm to someone without a valid CLU: 1 to 6 years.
Keeping an unregistered gun at home is possession. Having it on your person or in your vehicle outside your home is carrying, and the sentence roughly doubles. Owners often assume the CLU covers both. It does not.3UNODC. Law No. 25886 Modifying the Penal Code
Self-Defense Under Argentine Law
Article 34 of the Penal Code recognizes legitimate self-defense, but three conditions all have to be met. The unlawful attack must be current or imminent, not past or hypothetical. Your response must be rationally proportional to the threat. And you cannot have provoked the confrontation. A property dispute that ends in gunfire will almost certainly fail the proportionality test.
Licensed owners are also restricted to the purposes stated on their permit, generally sport shooting, hunting at authorized locations, or home defense within these legal boundaries. Using a registered firearm outside those purposes can still bring criminal charges.