Saturday, December 8, 2018

Germany: licenses to carry weapons double

It's Deutsche Welt, so it's backed with "violent American cowboy" references but this is pretty interesting:
Germany has issued nearly 600,000 basic weapons licenses, representing an increase of 130 percent since 2014, according to figures published on Friday by Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND), which supplies a number of German dailies with content. In 2014, only 261,332 licenses were in use.
With the license, Germans can carry gas pistols, flare guns and other weapons not intended for deadly use.
Not as good as a Glock, but better than nothing I guess.  Gosh, what might have led to this increase?
The rise has been partially attributed to a growing sense of public insecurity, most notably with an increase in terror attacks on European soil since 2015.
So Germans are rational.  The Polizei doesn't dig it that people don't feel like the Polizei can't protect them:
"We must be careful not to get American conditions in Germany," said Jörg Radek, deputy chairman of police union GdP, referring to rampant gun violence in the US. "There is a danger that weapons will not be used properly and that their owners will endanger themselves."
[insert "Only Ones" reference]

Germany started turning into America so slowly I hadn't noticed.

4 comments:

SiGraybeard said...

In Germans can carry gas pistols, flare guns and other weapons not intended for deadly use.
Does "gas pistols" mean air guns? I'm not sure what high end air pistols are like (haven't looked in ages), but ISTRC that they could convince someone to leave you alone.

The flare from a flare gun like I have on my boat would be like getting a "dragon's breath" 12ga round in the face. That ought to be effective.

Always emphasis is on the tools and not the real weapon.

tiredWeasel said...

German here - gunsmith, gun salesman and so on.

Basically the "small carry license" allows you to carry blank firing guns. That's it. These are sometimes referred to as "gas pistols", "signal pistols" or "noise-scare-guns" (Schreckschusswaffen - idk what the correct translation would be) - so that adds to the confusion even in Germany.

You're not allowed to carry anything that shoots a projectile (so any kind of air gun or crossbow ist verboten to carry).

These blank firing guns are modeled after real guns and load special blank cartridges. Some cartridges are loaded with either magnesium, tear gas or OC ("pepper spray") for added defense value - a popular calibre is "9mm PAK".

These guns can be sold to anyone over 18 with an ID.
But to carry these glorified cap guns you need a license - the "kleiner Waffenschein".

And I can assure you that most of the customers that asked about this license heard about it from the news. So basically the news pushed the demand and are now saying the demand is based in racism and fear. Go figure.

tiredWeasel said...

Oh and don't mind the "GdP" - there are two law enforcements unions in Germany and the GdP is the biggest but also the politicaly correct one. Everyone knows they're loons. :D

LSP said...

Been following this story and let's not forget the axiom:

Everything the lib does or intends produces the exact opposite of its intended result.