Status: 03/22/2023 10:23 a.m
Interior Minister Faeser is planning further tightening of gun laws. Among other things, it should be possible to temporarily confiscate legal weapons from suspected dangerous persons. Faeser only announced a tightening in January.
After the killing spree in a Hamburg house of prayer by Jehovah’s Witnesses, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser is planning a further tightening of gun laws. Gun owners should in future have to temporarily hand over their guns if they suspect a threat, Faeser told the news portal t-online. While those leads would be scrutinized, a potentially dangerous individual would then no longer be in possession of legal guns, she said.
In addition, according to Faeser’s plans, the period of time that is checked before a gun owner’s license is issued is to be extended. So far, five years have been looked back to see whether someone was noticed by the police through violence, said Faeser. In the future, the period could be extended to ten years ago.
Her ministry is also examining “how authorities can be obliged to conduct Internet research if there are appropriate indications,” said Faeser. The authorities should not miss any indication of a danger from gun owners. The assassin, who killed seven people and finally himself at a meeting of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hamburg on March 9, had published a pamphlet on the Internet in which he expressed confused religious theses, also in connection with the Holocaust.
An anonymous whistleblower drew attention to a possible mental illness and danger of the 35-year-old two months before the crime and cited the book as evidence.
Shortly after the shooting, Faeser announced that he wanted to review a draft amendment to the gun law that had been presented in January. For example, she called for the health authorities to be more involved in issuing gun licenses.
“We shouldn’t only have the same discussion about the consequences again and again after such terrible acts as we are now doing in Hamburg,” said the minister. Faeser emphasized that the attacks in Hanau and Hamburg were carried out with legal weapons. The legal situation is not enough.