With regard to Nancy Faeser’s plans to tighten gun laws, the FDP wants to introduce separate reporting of criminal offenses involving illegal weapons. However, Bavaria strongly criticizes the Federal Minister of the Interior’s plan.
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) has encountered resistance to her plans to tighten gun laws. “We already have strict gun laws in Germany. Tightening should therefore only be made if they are necessary and bring a real security gain,” Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) told the editorial network Germany (RND/Wednesday). “In my view, this is not the case with some of the proposals made; rather, they go far beyond a reasonable goal.”
This applies, for example, to Faeser’s planned ban on semi-automatic weapons that look like weapons of war. “Such a ban could result in manufacturers circumventing the ban by designing semi-automatic weapons externally in future in such a way that they appear harmless,” criticized Herrmann. From his point of view, the greatest danger is “not from legal, but from illegal gun ownership,” said Herrmann. “Guns in the hands of sport shooters or hunters usually do not pose a safety problem.”
Herrmann signaled support for the introduction of a small gun license for the purchase and possession of alarm and signal weapons. He referred to the fact that the new chairwoman of the Conference of Interior Ministers (IMK), Berlin’s Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD), wants to bring the topic back to the IMK. Herrmann called for “suitable solutions” on how to deal with the alarm and signal weapons that are currently in private ownership and legally acquired without a permit. According to the current legal situation, persons classified as unreliable can be banned from acquiring and owning alarm guns and crossbows, Herrmann emphasized. “It is therefore important that we consistently implement the existing regulations and that the weapons authorities also carry out on-site checks,” he told the RND.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) also advocated tightening the purchase of alarm and signal weapons. He told the RND: “The idea is not new. As early as 2020 and 2021, the interior ministers of the federal states considered changing the law at the conference of interior ministers and called on the Federal Ministry of the Interior to create the legal prerequisites. I would appreciate it if heads were nailed down quickly.”
FDP parliamentary group leader Konstantin Kuhle told the RND: “The main problem is illegal firearms. Here the state must proceed much more sharply and first improve the data situation. Neither the police crime statistics nor the federal situation report on firearms crime currently differentiate between legal and illegal weapons,” said the Liberal. In the future, both statistics should explicitly indicate whether a crime was committed with an illegal or a legal weapon, demanded Kuhle.
The Greens domestic politician Marcel Emmerich called on the FDP to agree to a tightening: “There is a considerable need for action, especially when it comes to disarming enemies of the constitution and blank guns,” he told the RND. “We have been admonishing this for years and New Year’s Eve and the December raid on Reich citizens have once again made this clear. The FDP must realize that we have to act quickly and implement the coalition agreement.”
