Overview
Civilian firearm ownership in Honduras is legal but licensed, screened and quantitatively capped. The current governing statute is the Ley de Control de Armas de Fuego, Municiones, Explosivos y Materiales Relacionados (Law on the Control of Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Related Materials), enacted by the National Congress as Decreto No. 101-2018 and in force since 7 May 2019. According to Honduran press coverage of its entry into force and to legal-repository summaries, the 2018 law replaced the earlier firearms statute of 2000 — the Ley de Control de Armas de Fuego, Municiones, Explosiones y Otros Similares — which had itself been amended over the years (notably by Decreto 69-2007, which capped civilian holdings at five weapons and restricted public carry). The 2018 statute retained the licensing-and-registration model of its predecessor while tightening several limits.
Responsibility for the regime is divided between the executive security ministries. The Secretaría de Estado en el Despacho de Defensa Nacional (Ministry of National Defense) and the Secretaría de Estado en el Despacho de Seguridad (Ministry of Security) administer authorization, and firearms are recorded in a Registro Nacional de Armas (National Arms Registry). The law regulates the full lifecycle of firearms and related materials — import, export, registration, transit, transport, transfer, distribution, custody, commercialization, brokering, use, storage, manufacture, modification, repair and reloading — as well as the ownership (propiedad), possession (tenencia), carrying (portación) and use of firearms, ammunition, explosives and related materials.
Two headline features distinguish the Honduran regime. First, it is quantitatively capped: as widely reported when the law took effect, a person may possess a maximum of three firearms and carry a maximum of two, down from the previous allowance of five. Second, it ties ammunition to registration: an owner may purchase ammunition only for the firearms he or she has registered.
This article summarizes the civilian-facing rules — ownership and licensing, carry and transport, travel and import, hunting and sport shooting, and penalties — as they stand under Decreto 101-2018. Several precise figures reported by secondary and press sources (exact fees, licence-renewal intervals, permitted calibers, and specific penalty ranges) could not be confirmed against a readable primary text during this research session, because the official gazette PDF could not be retrieved; those points are described qualitatively and flagged in the infobox as requiring verification against the official text. Readers seeking an authoritative answer on a specific provision should consult the Ministries of Defense and Security or the official published text of the decree.
Ownership & licensing
Under Decreto 101-2018, firearm ownership is a licensed privilege rather than an unconditional right. Consistent with the framework carried over from the previous law, the statute recognizes the ability of Honduran citizens and legally resident foreigners who are in full enjoyment of their civil rights, and who meet the legal requirements, to own and possess firearms. Each firearm must be individually authorized and recorded in the National Arms Registry, tying a specific weapon to a specific owner.
The most concrete limit is numeric. According to Honduran reporting on the 2018 reform, a natural person may possess (tenencia) no more than three firearms, a reduction from the five permitted under the earlier regime. This ceiling applies to the total registered to an individual. Certain categories of person or entity (for example licensed dealers, security companies or collectors) may be treated differently under the law's specific provisions, but the ordinary civilian ceiling is three.
Acquiring and registering a firearm involves vetting. Press coverage of the law's entry into force describes applicants having to undergo a psychological evaluation and to present criminal-background documentation, with firearms subjected to ballistic testing before they are entered in the registry, so that a fired-cartridge signature is on file. A clean record must also be shown at renewal. Earlier summaries of the Honduran regime describe firearm licences being renewed every four years; that interval was reported under the prior law and could not be re-verified against the 2018 text in this session, so it is noted here as reported rather than confirmed. Fees for the licence and for registry entry are set in lempiras; the specific amounts likewise could not be verified against the current official text and are not stated here as fixed figures.
Ammunition is deliberately linked to the registry. As directly reported from the law, an owner may buy ammunition only for the firearms he or she has registered — purchases are matched to the calibers on the owner's record rather than being open-ended. No specific annual ammunition quantity cap or magazine-capacity limit was found in the sources consulted; magazine limits are therefore recorded as unknown.
The statute also defines weapons that civilians may not own at all. According to Honduran media summaries of Decreto 101-2018, prohibited materials include automatic firearms of any caliber and materials reserved for the armed forces, police and penitentiary institutions; silencers, noise reducers and suppressors; devices that convert semi-automatic firearms to automatic fire or that change a weapon's caliber; shotguns with barrels shorter than the legal minimum (reported as 18 inches); devices for launching grenades; remotely operated, drone- or robot-mounted weapons; and weapons banned by international convention (chemical, biological, nuclear and similar). Ordinary handguns, rifles and shotguns that fall outside these prohibited categories are the licensable civilian types. Some caliber ceilings reported under the prior law (for example handguns up to .45 and rifles up to .308) could not be confirmed against the 2018 text and are not asserted here as current.
Carry & transport
Honduras treats carrying a firearm in public (portación) as a separate, additionally regulated act beyond ownership, and Decreto 101-2018 tightened it in three notable ways. First, the number is capped below the ownership limit: a person may carry a maximum of two firearms, even though up to three may be owned. Second, the minimum age to carry was raised to 21, up from 18 under the previous law, according to Honduran reporting on the reform. Third, the law prohibits the ostentatious or open display of a carried firearm (portación con exhibición ostensible) — a carried weapon must not be openly brandished or shown in public.
Carrying requires a licence (licencia de portación) issued through the security authorities and predicated on registration of the weapon. The vetting that applies to ownership — criminal-record checks and, as reported, psychological evaluation — underlies eligibility to carry. Because the law bars ostentatious carry, the practical effect is that lawful public carrying is concealed rather than open; open carry as a visible-display right is not permitted for ordinary civilians, while security personnel performing assigned duties are treated under distinct rules. This article therefore classifies open carry as not permitted and concealed carry as permitted by licence.
The law contemplates that carrying is subject to place-based and conduct-based restrictions, and enforcement is shared between the Ministry of Security (police) and, for the arms-control framework, the Ministry of Defense. The specific catalogue of locations where carrying is forbidden even to licence-holders, and any event-based suspensions, could not be verified against a readable primary text in this session and are not enumerated here; they should be confirmed against the official regulation. What is verifiable is the structural rule set: a low carry ceiling (two), a raised minimum age (21), a ban on open display, and licensing tied to registration.
Transport of firearms — moving a registered weapon between locations, such as to a range, a gunsmith or a new residence — falls within the law's broad coverage of the "transport" and "tránsito" of firearms and materials. The statute's structure implies that a firearm in transit should be moved by an authorized person with the weapon's registry documentation available for inspection, and, given the ban on ostentatious carry, not displayed. The precise transport conditions (packaging, whether the weapon must be unloaded and cased, notification or routing requirements) were not verifiable against a primary source in this session and are described here in general terms rather than as exact mandates. Owners should confirm current transport procedures with the Ministries of Defense and Security. Because both possession and carry hinge on Honduran registration and licensing, moving a firearm without the corresponding documentation exposes the carrier to seizure and prosecution regardless of the stated purpose of the trip.
Travel & import
The import, export and cross-border movement of firearms and ammunition in Honduras is controlled by the same statute, Decreto 101-2018, which expressly lists importation, exportation, transit and transport among the regulated activities. Authorization is administered by the executive security ministries — Defense and Security — and firearms lawfully brought into the country must be entered in the National Arms Registry. Private individuals therefore cannot freely import firearms; a specific authorization is required, and commercial importation is confined to licensed dealers operating under the law's commercial provisions.
For a resident importing a firearm for personal ownership, the import authorization is additional to — not a substitute for — domestic registration and licensing. An imported weapon must still be registered (and, for public carrying, covered by a carry licence), must fall within the licensable civilian categories, and counts against the three-firearm possession ceiling. The prohibited categories that may not be owned domestically — automatic weapons, suppressors, conversion devices, over-short shotguns, grenade launchers and internationally banned arms — likewise may not lawfully be imported for civilian use.
For foreign visitors, Honduras does not operate a casual tourist-carry regime. Because possession and carrying depend on Honduran registration and licences generally tied to citizenship or legal residence, a visitor cannot assume that a foreign permit will be recognized. Temporary importation of a firearm by a non-resident — for example for a sanctioned hunting trip or shooting competition — would fall under the law's import-authorization provisions and would require advance clearance from the competent authorities and customs; it is not a matter of a simple declaration on arrival. The precise documentation, quantities and duration for any temporary-import or visitor permit could not be verified against a primary source in this session and are recorded as unknown, pending confirmation from the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Security or the Honduran customs administration (Administración Aduanera de Honduras).
Ammunition is regulated alongside firearms: its import is controlled and, domestically, purchases are limited to the calibers a buyer has registered. Travellers should also account for Honduras's broader security environment and the reduced numeric allowances under the 2018 law; bringing a firearm into the country without unambiguous, current authorization carries elevated legal risk. Anyone contemplating importing a firearm — whether a returning resident or a visitor — is best served by obtaining written authorization in advance and confirming the current customs procedure, because the operative rules are administered case-by-case and the specific figures could not be verified from primary sources here. Where the law is genuinely unclear on visitor firearm importation, this article records the point as unknown rather than asserting a procedure.
Hunting & sport shooting
Hunting and sport shooting are lawful in Honduras, but firearms used for them remain governed by the general licensing, registration and quantity rules of Decreto 101-2018 rather than by a separate, more permissive category. A hunter or competitive shooter must be an eligible, vetted owner, must register each firearm in the National Arms Registry, must stay within the three-owned/two-carried ceilings, and must observe the carry and transport rules — including the ban on ostentatious display — when moving a weapon to and from the field or range.
The firearm types typically used for hunting and sport — ordinary rifles and shotguns that are not of military type, and non-automatic handguns — fall within the licensable civilian categories. A notable detail concerns optics: while the law prohibits certain high-precision telescopic, laser or infrared sights as reserved or military-type accessories, Honduran summaries of the regime describe an exception for telescopic sights intended for hunting or sporting use, which are permitted. Shotguns must meet the minimum barrel-length rule (reported as 18 inches), and the prohibitions on automatic weapons, suppressors and conversion devices apply equally to sporting use — there is no sporting exemption that reopens those categories. Ammunition for hunting or competition, like all ammunition, may be purchased only for the calibers the shooter has registered.
Hunting is additionally subject to wildlife and environmental law, which sits outside the firearms statute. Honduras regulates wildlife and protected areas through its forestry and conservation authority (the Instituto Nacional de Conservación y Desarrollo Forestal, Áreas Protegidas y Vida Silvestre, ICF) and associated legislation; hunting seasons, permitted and protected species, bag limits and any dedicated hunting permits are set by that framework rather than by the arms law. The precise scope of those rules was not verified against a primary source in this research session and is recorded as requiring separate confirmation; a licensed firearm does not by itself authorize the taking of protected wildlife.
For sport shooting, participation generally occurs at authorized ranges and clubs. As with other parts of the regime, competitors must keep registration and licensing current, respect the carry ceiling and the ban on open display when transporting weapons, and use only permitted firearm and ammunition types. Organizers of competitions involving foreign participants, or anyone importing firearms or ammunition temporarily for an event, would additionally need the import authorizations described under Travel & import. Because Honduras channels hunting and sporting use through the same licensing-and-registration system that governs all civilian firearms — subject only to the sporting-optics exception and the separate wildlife rules — the practical requirements for a hunter or competitive shooter closely mirror those for any other licensed owner. Where hunting-specific rules are set outside the firearms law, this article does not assert figures it could not verify.
Penalties
Decreto 101-2018 and the Honduran Penal Code (Código Penal) establish sanctions for breaches of the firearms regime, and the sources consulted indicate that criminal penalties for firearms offences are applied largely through the Penal Code, while the arms law itself sets the control framework and administrative consequences. As with comparable regimes, offences are differentiated by gravity: possessing an unregistered firearm, carrying without a licence or beyond the permitted number, carrying with prohibited ostentation, dealing without authorization, and possessing prohibited weapons of war are treated as distinct violations of increasing seriousness. Administrative consequences — denial, suspension or revocation of a licence and seizure of the weapon — sit at the lower end, with criminal fines and imprisonment reserved for more serious conduct, and the possession or trafficking of prohibited or military-type arms at the severe end of the scale.
This article does not state a specific statutory imprisonment range or fine amount for these offences, because a precise figure could not be verified against a readable primary text during this research session. Some secondary summaries of the earlier Honduran firearms law reported penalties for possessing or trafficking prohibited weapons in the range of several years' imprisonment together with fines expressed in thousands of lempiras, and lesser terms for trafficking in otherwise-permitted weapons. Those figures derive from the prior statutory framework and were not confirmable against the current Decreto 101-2018 or the in-force Penal Code here; they are therefore not asserted as authoritative. What can be stated with confidence is the structural principle: penalties scale with the category of weapon and the nature of the conduct, and the use of a firearm in the commission of another crime is treated as an aggravating factor under the Penal Code.
Because the 2018 law reduced the numbers a civilian may hold and carry (three owned, two carried) and raised the carry age to 21, conduct that was formerly lawful for some owners — holding a fourth or fifth weapon, or carrying at ages 18 to 20 — may now fall on the wrong side of the line, with the corresponding exposure to seizure and sanction. Likewise, buying ammunition for an unregistered caliber, or displaying a carried weapon ostensibly, breaches specific prohibitions of the current law.
Anyone needing an exact penalty — the precise prison term or fine attaching to a given offence, and the article that imposes it — should consult the current, in-force text of Decreto 101-2018 and the Honduran Penal Code directly, or obtain professional legal advice, because the specific ranges and any statutory subsection attributions could not be verified against the primary text in this session and are deliberately described qualitatively here. Where a precise figure is required, the official published law and the Penal Code remain the authoritative sources.
Sources
- Tribunal Superior de Cuentas (Honduras) — Decreto No. 101-2018, Ley de Control de Armas de Fuego, Municiones, Explosivos y Materiales Relacionados (official text) (accessed 2026-07-17)
- Tribunal Superior de Cuentas (Honduras) — Biblioteca / Leyes: Ley de Control de Armas de Fuego, Municiones, Explosivos y Materiales Relacionados (accessed 2026-07-17)
- The Law Library of Congress — Honduras: Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy (accessed 2026-07-17)
- La Prensa (Honduras) — "Hondureños podrán portar dos armas y poseer tres" (new firearms law) (accessed 2026-07-17)
- RadioHouse (Honduras) — "¡Estas son las armas prohibidas en Honduras!" (prohibited weapons under Decreto 101-2018) (accessed 2026-07-17)
- Wikipedia — Firearms regulation in Honduras (accessed 2026-07-17)