A refusal by the Service Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to issue a weapons permit, or the revocation of a permit already issued, must always rest on a specific ground listed in the law. Under the Law of Georgia on Arms, disputes connected with the circulation of weapons are resolved in court — which means that both a refusal and a revocation are subject to judicial challenge. A refusal letter is therefore not the final word: it may be the product of an incomplete file, an expired certificate, or an interpretation the law does not permit, and in each of these situations you have the possibility of a properly conducted dispute.
The service on this page is legal representation in refusals and revocations: analysis of the normative basis of the refusal, reconstruction of the evidentiary base, and preparation of your position for court within the deadlines set by the general rules of law.
When a permit may be refused — the grounds listed in the law
The law names the circumstances in which a permit is not issued: where the applicant suffers from a mental illness or his state of health makes it impossible to receive the permit; where he systematically violates public order; where he suffers from alcoholism, drug addiction or toxicomania; where he is an accused, or his conviction has not been expunged or annulled, and/or he was convicted of one of the offences named in the law; where an administrative penalty restricting weapons-related rights has been imposed on him and its term has not expired; where a protective, restraining or weapons-rights restriction order has been issued against him; and where the documents submitted do not meet the requirements established by the legislation.
Age criteria are likewise set by law: an applicant who has not turned eighteen, and for a defined category of civil firearms and gas weapons — including their import and export — an applicant who has not turned twenty-one. Separate grounds are failure in the examination or non-submission of the health certificate, the absence of a consent required by law, and information about an offence committed abroad. The formal character of this list is precisely where legal work begins: every ground is a requirement that must be proven and interpreted correctly.
Conviction-related terms — four, eight or twelve years
The law sets the term of the conviction-related restriction: after the conviction is expunged or annulled, four years must have passed for a less serious offence, eight years for a serious offence, and twelve years for a particularly serious offence. If a new offence of the same kind is committed before the term expires, the terms are added together — the law regulates this aggregation in detail. At the same time, the restriction carries an important exception: it does not apply to the issuance of a permit for hunting and sport firearms, except sport short firearms, and the requirements of that part of the law do not extend to signal-weapon permits either. Correct classification of the offence and correct computation of the term often change the outcome of the case.