From a legal perspective, it is possible. Article 10 of the "Patent Law Implementing Rules" stipulates that "inventions and creations that violate the law, social morality or harm public interests" as mentioned in Article 5 of the Patent Law ", excluding "inventions and creations whose implementation is prohibited by law only" is very awkward to pronounce. The way to break the sentence is "inventions and creations whose implementation is prohibited by law only". In other words, some things are illegal only if they are made by the private sector. If they are just designs, then they are not illegal. Weapons fall within this scope.
So it is possible to design firearms and apply for patents, and some people have indeed successfully applied. But whether it can be adopted is hard to say. It’s not that civilian designers are not good enough, but whether the guns designed by civilians can meet the requirements of the military. In these aspects, the private sector often lags behind or is too forward-looking. The guns designed by some people are no problem in terms of performance and manufacturing process. At the current level, they can be manufactured and equipped on a large scale. However, the overall design is too mediocre and has no obvious advantages compared with the current models, or does not fill the existing gaps. Then there is no need for the country to adopt a design with duplicate performance and positioning. Some people's designs are too advanced or too unpopular. Current technology may be able to produce them, but due to various reasons (practicability, cost, etc.) they are not suitable for large-scale equipment. For example, the QTS11, which has the title of strategic rifle, has incredible performance. It is not excellent, but it also has shortcomings such as the lack of modular design (the grenade launcher, which is a non-essential component, cannot be removed, which is a common problem with this type of weapon) and the overall body is too bulky. Therefore, it is still only a small batch of equipment used as a special weapon. It was for these reasons that the United States split the OICW into XM25 and XM8 for development, but later simply stopped. Although China has done better, it is not to the extent of causing a qualitative change. In other words, design is not difficult for the public. What is difficult is how to strike a balance between practicality, forward-lookingness, reliability, cost-effectiveness, etc. Once someone's design can achieve these balances, even if it is a little different from the military requirements, the possibility of being adopted will be much greater (at worst, if you ask a professional designer to make changes for you, the initial design will of course still be yours. If you are lucky) Well, maybe the designer will become a regular)
Legal basis:
Article 12 of the "Interim Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Private Enterprises" stipulates that private enterprises can operate in the state Within the scope prescribed by laws, regulations and policies, engage in production and operation in industries such as industry, construction, transportation, commerce, catering, service, repair and scientific and technological consulting. Private enterprises are not allowed to engage in production and operation in the military and financial industries, and are not allowed to produce or operate products prohibited by the state. The above also shows that the state does not allow private development of weapons.