Enemies of the constitution should no longer be allowed to carry weapons. But the law is often subverted, Interior Minister Strobl complains - and calls for stricter legislation. CDU-led countries support him.
Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - Baden-Württemberg is campaigning for stricter gun laws in the fight against extremists. Together with the CDU-led states of Saxony-Anhalt and Hesse, the south-west wants to campaign at the conference of interior ministers to ensure that members of anti-constitutional groups are no longer able to get their hands on pistols and rifles. The weapons law has already been tightened with a view to extremists and so-called Reich citizens. The law is often undermined, said Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) of the German Press Agency.
What's behind it? Weapons and ammunition may only be owned by those who are legally reliable. The Weapons Act differentiates between the so-called rule unreliability (in the sense of "usually") and absolute unreliability. In the case of the absolute unreliability of weapons law, under no circumstances may a permit be granted. This applies, for example, to people who have been convicted of a crime in the past ten years. The authority has no discretion in this regard. The unreliability of the rules, on the other hand, can be invalidated in individual cases.
Current or former membership in a banned association, an unconstitutional party or an anti-constitutional association is currently still attested as unreliable. However, extremists often objected and thus undermined the gun ban, according to the Ministry of the Interior. Therefore, according to the ideas of the three countries, such memberships should in future justify an absolute unreliability in terms of weapons law - which would make it significantly more difficult to object.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, anyone who is a member of an anti-constitutional association is expressing a "law-breaking attitude" that should not only be of a temporary nature. "In these cases, it therefore seems appropriate to assume that there is absolutely unreliability under the law on weapons, at least for a certain period of time." The three countries want to ask the Federal Ministry of the Interior to tighten the weapons law. "We have to tighten up here so that it cannot be circumvented or undermined," said Interior Minister Strobl. "So we have to tighten the screws again at this point in the regulation in order to disarm extremists even more effectively."
"We have always said: Weapons must not come into the possession of unreliable people," said Strobl. "Weapons have no place, especially in the hands of enemies of the constitution." From 2017 to early February 2022, more than 400 weapons were confiscated from Reich citizens and extremists in Baden-Württemberg. But: According to the Interior Ministry, as of February 1, 2022, 14 Reich citizens and 9 extremists were in possession of a weapon that required a permit.
"Reich citizens" and "self-administrators" question the legitimacy of the Federal Republic. They often refuse to pay taxes. The approximately 150 weapons authorities in the country ask the Office for the Protection of the Constitution whether the person in question is known to be an extremist. However, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the State Criminal Police Office also act on their own initiative and inform the weapons authorities on their own initiative. The responsible weapons authority checks the gun owners again after at least three years for their reliability.
