The Permit Regime and the Issuing Authorities
The acquisition, storage and carrying of weapons in Georgia are governed by a permit system. For an individual, the corresponding permits for civilian and service-status weapons are issued by the public law legal entity of Georgia — the Service Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia. The law distinguishes an acquisition permit conferring the right of storage, an acquisition permit conferring the rights of storage and carrying, and an acquisition permit conferring the right of carrying, which applies to weapons transferred with service-status. The type of permit is determined by the category of the weapon: certain categories may be acquired with the storage right only, while others carry both the storage and carrying rights, and this determination does not depend on the applicant's preference.
Entrepreneurial activity in the manufacture, repair and trade of weapons is subject to separate licences. To obtain such licences, an applicant legal entity or individual entrepreneur must submit a written application, data on registration in the registry of entrepreneurs and non-commercial legal entities, a list of the staff directly engaged in the licensed activity together with information on their criminal record or deprivation of rights, absence from narcological registration and their mental condition, as well as a document confirming appropriate education or qualification — a certificate, a diploma, an organisation's recommendation, a certificate of passing one of the established examinations, or a document confirming retraining or military service. A certificate of compliance with fire safety norms in the building, a document confirming conformity of the building with the technical safety norms established by the government-approved technical regulation, proof of payment of the licence fee, and a recommendation of the Standing Commission on Military-Technical Issues of the Ministry of Defence of Georgia are also required. Where the licence concerns acoustic weapons, gas aerosol devices or electroshock devices, the consent of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia must be attached.