FAQ
Status: 03/13/2023 5:07 p.m
After the shooting in Hamburg, Interior Minister Faeser wants to tighten gun laws – more than planned. The coalition partner FDP sticks to its criticism. What are the sticking points?
After the deadly shots in Hamburg, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser announced that he would reconsider his draft amendment to the Weapons Act. A further tightening is in the room.
What Faeser is planning on gun law
Federal Minister of the Interior Faeser wants every applicant for a gun license to be checked in future to see whether he or she is “psychologically suitable”. That said the SPD politician in the daily topics. The test, which is currently only intended for under-25s, must be carried out in cooperation with the health authorities. “In the future, we want the weapons authority not only to query the security authorities and the local police, but also the health authorities,” said Faeser. Not only applicants up to the age of 25 should have to submit a medical or psychological report, but also older people in the future.
Faeser also announced that a ban on semi-automatic pistols would also be examined. In doing so, she goes beyond a draft for tightening gun laws that her ministry only drafted in January.
According to the draft, particularly dangerous semi-automatic firearms similar to military weapons should be banned for private individuals. Semi-automatic pistols have so far not been one of them, unlike assault rifles, for example. In addition, blank pistols and crossbows should only be given to those who have a firearms license. Faeser justified the plans with the allegedly militant “Reichsbürger” group and the New Year’s Eve riots in Berlin. She also referred to the attacks in Halle and Hanau.
Interview with Federal Minister of the Interior Faeser on the tightening of gun laws
3/10/2023 10:16 p.m
Why the debate is now relevant again
The trigger for the discussion is a recent shooting. In Hamburg, 35-year-old Philipp F. shot seven people and himself on Thursday evening. Eight people were injured, some critically. The murder weapon, according to the police: a semi-automatic pistol, with which F. shot more than 130 times. F., a marksman, is said to have owned the gun legally for a few months.
According to information from security circles, Philipp F. was not known to be an extremist. The weapons authority is said to have visited him in February. The authorities had received an anonymous tip about a possible mental illness from F. But at that time there were no relevant complaints, said Ralf Martin Meyer, Chief of Police Hamburg. The legal possibilities had been exhausted.
Why the FDP brakes on gun rights
While the Green coalition partner raises the same demands as Faeser, the FDP has reservations. Your politicians refer to the coalition agreement. There they agreed to first evaluate the gun law and to make existing control options “more effective”. Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) already referred to the pending evaluation in January, when Faeser’s first draft became known. This evaluation should be done first. The existing “strict gun laws” must be better enforced, Buschmann told the “Augsburger Allgemeine”.
After the act in Hamburg, party colleagues made similar statements. FDP faction deputy Konstantin Kuhle told the Funke media group: “Without a precise investigation of the background, demands for legislative consequences are out of the question.” The weapons law already “unmistakably” regulates that mentally ill people are not allowed to own firearms. As an FDP, you remain skeptical, says Kuhle in the tage show.
Vice-party leader Wolfgang Kubicki told the Welt television channel: “The natural reaction of initially wanting to ban everything is out of the question. That’s an understandable human reaction, but when in doubt it doesn’t help.”
What experts say about tightening
Jochen Kopelke, chairman of the German Police Union (GdP), urges quick action. It needs to be tightened up immediately, Kopelke told the editorial network Germany. There is no need to wait for an evaluation of previous reforms. The GdP advocates more staff in the authorities and preferential testing of possible gun owners in the health authorities. The private ownership of weapons should also be curtailed.
Many hunters and marksmen see it differently. Friedrich Gepperth, chairman of the “Forum Waffenrecht” interest group, rejects a tightening of the gun law. According to a message from the forum, existing control and withdrawal options only have to be applied and implemented. The Hamburg Weapons Authority could have given the perpetrator a “psychological assessment” under current law. The hurdles for this are “conceivably low”, says Gepperth.
How to proceed now
The investigations are continuing in Hamburg, and the question should also be whether the crime could have been prevented. The political discussion has only just begun. So far, however, the subject of gun law has not been on the agenda of the Bundestag’s Interior Committee. Faeser has the SPD interior ministers behind him. After a meeting with Faeser in Bremen, they spoke out in favor of stricter gun laws in Germany.