🔫 Weapons

What it is

Legal firearms in the city are bought over a counter by someone with a firearms licence. There are seven Ammu-Nation counters, each with a gunsmith bench beside it, and companies can open gun shops of their own. Every weapon sold is logged with a serial number against the buyer, and each character can only buy so many in a month.

Once you own a weapon, you decide where it sits on your body: a pistol at the back of the waistband or in a thigh holster, a rifle on a chest sling or across the back. Sidearms can be hidden under your clothes; long guns and melee weapons cannot. Weapons wear as you fire them, and the gunsmith bench puts them right.

This page covers the legal side. What happens if you are caught with an unlicensed or stolen weapon is on Custody and the law.

How to start

The licence. Every weapon needs a valid Purchase and Firearms Licence: an exam and a background check at the Firearms Licensing Office, $2,500, at least 5 hours of play time and a clean record, then 24 hours of processing before you can buy. The hunting rifle and its musket balls also need a game licence from a ranger office. Ammunition for other weapons is sold over the counter without a licence. See Licences and flight school.

Firearms Licensing Office-1285.00, -566.61

PF licence and CCW permit exams and applications

The counters. Seven Ammu-Nation counters sell the same catalogue at the same prices. Press E within a few metres of the counter marker to browse.

Ammu-Nation, Paleto Bay-330.20, 6083.90

The counter for the north. The gunsmith bench is beside it

Ammu-Nation, Pillbox Hill22.19, -1107.43

Downtown Los Santos

Ammu-Nation, Tataviam Mountains2567.70, 294.40

Labelled Sandy Shores on the map. On the Senora Freeway

Prices. These are the counter prices. Every weapon comes with three boxes of its ammunition.

Step by step

1. Walk up to the counter

   Press E at the counter marker. The panel shows your licence status, your monthly limits and the catalogue by category: Pistols, SMGs, Shotguns, Rifles, Snipers, Hunting and Ammunition.

2. Look before you buy

   Pick an item to see its damage, magazine, rate of fire and calibre, which attachments fit it, and whether you can buy it. Anything you cannot buy says why: Firearms licence required, Firearms licence still being processed, Game licence required, or Monthly limit reached.

3. Fill the basket

   Add weapons and ammunition to the basket. Ammunition is bought by the box, up to ten boxes a line.

4. Pay

   Pay by cash, card or bank. The receipt lists each weapon with its serial number, and your starter ammunition goes into your pockets. A weapon or box that does not fit in your pockets is refunded, and if the starter ammunition does not fit you are told, so make room before you buy.

5. Choose where it sits

   Type /weaponposition on foot and pick a position for the new weapon (see Carrying and positioning below).

6. Keep it serviced

   Every round you fire wears the weapon a little. Visit the gunsmith bench next to any counter to see its condition and pay to restore it.

Monthly limits and serial numbers

Each character can buy a limited number of weapons in any rolling 30 days, counted across every Ammu-Nation counter and every player-run gun shop together:

Every weapon bought legally has a serial number and is logged against the buyer with the price and the date. That record is how a legally owned weapon is told apart from a stolen or untraceable one.

Player-run gun shops

A company can run a licensed gun shop of its own. The owner stands in a company property and types /setupshop gunsmith, then places the counter with /placemarker. Customers walk in and press E at the counter to see the same catalogue, with the same licence checks and the same monthly limits.

The shop sets its own prices, anywhere from half the counter price to three times it, and keeps its own stock of up to 50 of each line. Restocking costs 60 percent of the counter price per unit, paid from the company account, and every sale is paid into the company bank. The property owner or manager, and company ranks with the Point of sale permission, can manage the stock; changing prices and restocking also needs Bank withdraw. See Companies.

Gunsmith benches

Each Ammu-Nation has a gunsmith bench a few steps from the counter. Press E at the orange marker to open it. The bench lists every weapon in your inventory with its condition, the wear on each part, how many rounds are loaded, the attachments fitted and the ones that would fit.

Parts wear with every round. A worn barrel loses accuracy and damage, a worn slide can jam, and a weak magazine spring slows your reloads. Service one weapon, or Service all, for cash; bigger weapons cost more per point of wear, and sniper rifles the most.

Carrying and positioning

/weaponposition (also /weaponspec, /adjustweapon or /weaponadjust) opens the weapon position panel. It works on foot only, not in a vehicle.

The panel has three tabs, Sidearms, Long Guns and Melee, and lists the weapons you own in each. For each weapon pick a position:

For something the presets do not cover, choose a Body Part (chest, back waistband, upper, mid or lower back, base of the spine, hips, either thigh or either calf), or Fine-tune, which opens the prop editor on your character: Enter keeps the result and Escape goes back. A weapon can be moved up to 0.6 m from its body part. Save when you are done, or Use default position to go back.

Who can see it.

Carrying a concealed weapon is its own legal question: the Concealed Carry Weapon permit is on Licences and flight school.

Unloading

/unload takes the rounds out of the weapon you are holding, or the one docked on your body, and puts them back in your pockets as ammunition, round for round. You need room in your pockets for them. Duty weapons issued by a faction cannot be unloaded.

On the English server there are also extra melee weapons that only staff hand out.

On Coral Island

Coral Island has its own firearms law and its own licences. Your San Andreas licence does not count there, and weapons are not allowed on the scheduled Sandy Shores to Coral Island flights. See Coral Island law.

See also

• Licences and flight school for the PF licence, the CCW permit and their exams.

• Companies for running a player-run gun shop.

• Hunting for the hunting rifle, the game licence and which weapons are legal for which game.

• Wildlife for how far a shot, and a suppressed shot, carries.

• Coral Island law for the island's own firearms licences.

Tips

Related commands

Worked example