How much does it cost to get a firearm license in South Africa?

I have always thought that getting a firearm license is expensive. Still, when I decided to embark on the journey over 10 years ago, I realized that it was pretty affordable and well worth the investment. I recently decided to dig and find out what the cost is today, and I am excited to share what I found.

A new firearm license will cost R1,310. Including educational material, legal test, training & shooting test, ID photos, & application fees for the competency certificate and firearm license. Once you have obtained your competency certificate, each additional firearm license will cost you a R140 application fee and R50 for ID photos.

As you can see, it is within everyone’s reach to get a firearm license if you are willing to put in the work and are patient enough. What’s more, once you have completed the training and received a competency certificate, each additional license will only cost R140 plus what it costs to take some ID photos.

Let’s look at the breakdown of these costs next and see if there are ways to save money if you want to license more than once firearm. Read on to see what I found.

Detailed costs of getting a firearm license in South Africa

• Training
• R500 – Legal Test (Knowledge of the Firearm Act)
• R500 – Handle and Use a Handgun (or Rifle’Shotgun, depending on what you are licensing)
• Competency Certificate
• R70 – Application Fees (payable to the South African Police Service)
• R50 – Cost of ID photos. (You need to arrange these yourself)
• Firearm License
• R140 – Application Fees (payable to the South African Police Service)
• R50 – Cost of ID photos. (You need to arrange these yourself)
• Total
• R1,310

The cost of training I used in this calculation is the average of the 5 most popular accredited training providers. You might be able to shop around and get it even cheaper; however, be sure the trainer has good credentials. You could get the cost down even further by finding a more affordable place to take ID photos.

How much does it cost to get multiple firearm licenses in South Africa?

Obtaining the training certificates – R3,000

In South Africa, you need a competency certificate for each type of firearm you want to license. There are essentially four categories of firearms competency certificates, namely:

• Handle and Use of a Handgun
• Handle and Use of a Shotgun
• Handle and Use of a Manually Operated Rifle
• Handle and Use of a Self-loading Rifle (semi-automatic rifle)

In addition to the “Handling” of the firearm, students are also required to do a legal test.

• Knowledge of the Firearm Act

Most training providers will offer a combined deal where you can do all of the courses together at a massive discount. For example, doing all of these courses individually would cost between R500 and R900 each. This could cost you as much as R4,500.

By doing these together, most training institutions will offer it at around R3,000. So if you are going to license more than one firearm in the future, it is well worth it in the long run.

Application for Competency Certificates – R380

Once you have completed all the courses, you are now ready to apply for the competency certificates at your local police station. For each certificate, you will need to pay R70 for each category of competency certificate you are applying for, along with a set of ID photos for each application (2 per application)

• Application fees = R70 x 4 = R280
• ID Photos = R50 for 4 photos = R100 for 8 photos
• Total: R380

After you have successfully submitted the application for all your competency certificates, you will need to wait for feedback from the DFO (Designated Firearms Officer) to find out if they have been approved. This takes a minimum of 90 working days, so be patient.

Application for Firearm Licenses – R660

Once you have had your competency certificated approved, you are now ready to apply for your firearm licenses. If you license a firearm in each of the 4 categories, this will be the cost.

• Application fees = R140 x 4 firearms = R560
• ID Photos = R50 / 4 = R100 for 8 photos
• Total: R660

Total cost to get 4 firearm licenses – R4,040

That is R1,010 per firearm licensed, and this is R300 cheaper than applying for only one license. As you can see, if you know that you will be licensing more than one firearm in the near future, it may be well worth it to find a training institution that will offer a course that includes training for all 4 categories of firearms and get it over with.

Conclusion

Contrary to popular belief, the cost of obtaining a firearm license is quite affordable and well worth the benefits of having a firearm. In fact, it is a fraction of the cost of the firearm itself!

It’s worth mentioning that if you know that you will be licensing more than one firearm in the future, speak to your training provider if they can offer you a combined deal of all four of the firearm categories. They almost always will accommodate you, saving you some moola.