Well, we’ll never know. But who could be surprised if a person who did something like this had delusions of grandeur and pictured the world as a place that only they could save? Either that or an elaborate rationalization for an essentially suicidal impulse.
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Yes. I don’t see eye to eye with her on quite a lot of things, but this statement is beyond reproach.
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In the video he said that getting a carry license is basically impossible unless you are police or in the security field.
He did cover which knives were and were not able to be carried as well.
And no ninja stars! Evidently Bruce Lee made them look really scary and they banned them.
German law enforcement officers don’t actually need a carry license to carry a gun on the job because their police ID card – German police don’t use badges – implies the license. (I don’t know how hard it is for a member of the police to obtain an off-duty carry permit, but the rules for them are the same, in principle, as for anybody else, so unless they’re moonlighting as diamond delivery drivers it might not be straightforward at all.)
Note that German police hardly ever actually discharge their weapons in the course of their duties – the annual countrywide total count of rounds of ammunition expended by all police forces in the line of duty is usually in the low three digits, and a large proportion of this is warning shots and shots used to put down dangerous animals.
Don’t forget John Steed’s umbrella sword. We don’t get to have those either.
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Thanks for the long post. I didn’t have the energy for that.
@GagHalfrunt, thabks for your post as well. Covers the same info plus some additions.
To be clear, any automatic weapon is unobtainable due to the Kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz. Semi-automatics are borderline impossible. I’ll have to check the MP5 in case of this video. There are several versions of the MP5, as far as I know, and some might be legally owned.
But I’m definitely not watching gun nuts videos after a mass murder. There are better ways to ruin my day.
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He’s not a gun nut. He’s mostly a crazy sling shot nut. Many in the maker community have marveled at his contraptions. I specially chose him because 1) he’s German with 1st hand information, 2) primarily not a gun channel.
The MP5 I am sure is a semi-auto variant. From my research full autos are illegal, but the war-weapons act can be circumvented by not using exact variants, and obviously a semi-auto version isn’t the same the military uses. I will say that dw.com link doesn’t have accurate information as this guy owns a semi-auto rifle and a pump shot gun (I found other sources of semi-auto rifle owners in Germany). So maybe it isn’t allowed under some of the types of licensees, but clearly some licenses allow it.
To the point of this event - a Glock hand gun was used, which could definitely be obtained under a sporting licenses, and possibly a hunting one as well. As possible changes in legislation, I wonder if in the future when being reviewed for a license, if political affiliation with Nationalistic groups will prevent the ability to obtain one. I know they already have many laws limiting these groups with things like banning their symbols, so maybe it already is something they look at. But it may not catch what one does covertly, or the guy was late 40s, his attitudes could have changed in the last decade or something. Unfortunately even a “good” stringent system isn’t fool proof.
Finally -
The video is an informational one about the gun laws (and knife, bow, and sling shot laws) in German by someone who actually owns licensees in a neutral tone. And given the stringent requirements they have over there, they are the epitome of trained, responsible, and registered and licensed owners. Everything gun control activists want, yet still labeled a “gun nut”?
Simple response to your last point: owning a MP5 and a pump-action shotgun? Gun nut.
Those are not for hunting.
Those are not for sports.
Those are simply for the pleasure of owning those kinds of weapon.
And don’t get me started on showing this off for the clicks.
There’s no room to wiggle. Especially if this person is living in Germany. And I am not going to watch the video, nor arguing about further stuff beside the point that we are in the situation of several people killed out of racist hatred because a fucking racist arsehole had a gun.
Fuck this shit.
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it’s really a great paradox how they all insist their group is special and everybody else is hardly worthy to breathe, and then they are on some level really just exchangeable figments of the same ignorance and stupidity
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IMHO, Sprave is a bit more complex (e.g. Youtuber’s union) and really hasn’t done anything to deserve to be dragged into this.
I like him, but yes - gun nut.
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This guy probably has a hunting license. AFAIK gun-owning licenses for hunters technically allow AR-15 style rifles, although they’re not used a lot by hunters since (a) they’re not great hunting weapons in the first place, and (b) in German hunting circles they’re not considered sporting. As far as pump shot guns are concerned, German weapons laws disallow them if they have just a pistol grip and no proper shoulder stock. Again, German hunters seem to prefer the traditional double-barreled shotguns to pump-action shotguns so your hunting buddies might look at you funny if you turn up with one.
You don’t get to own pump shot guns on a sports marksmanship owner’s license because they aren’t used in gun sports (hereabouts, anyway). The same goes for AR-15-style semi-auto rifles.
Finally, if you desperately wanted to violate the Kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz by owning an AK-47 or similar, you could in theory take a holiday in the Balkans by car and see what you could turn up there. Border controls are fairly light these days and you would have to have really bad luck to be searched on your way home. But it would still be a bad, bad idea.
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I’m nor lecturing anyone, I’m informing. There are massive misconceptions about a lot of things going on. Everyone thinks gun laws are sane and logical and would prevent tragedies like this - but most people have no idea what those laws actually are. So that begs the question, how can something like this happen in Germany? I think the assumption was some sort of rifle was used, so how could that happen? It turns out it was a handgun, so how does one get one of those?
It also begs the other question, with their stringent licensing requirement, do they currently look into things like political affiliation? If not, that may change. They definitely look at your record.
So thanks to a click baity title, you know all you need to know to delve into ad hominem? Got it.
I am unfamiliar with this term. Sealions are delightful, though I doubt this usage is 
This isn’t a case of taking an AR and building a sport around it. (I’d concede that point.) Pump action shotsguns have ALWAYS been used for sports and hunting.
Two of the primary licenses in Germany are HUNTING and SPORT - which means anything they are allowed to have must have uses in one of those two categories. What they DON’T have much of a use for in Germany is self defense. While technically they could be used that way, their storage laws require the guns and ammo are locked up and separate - which doesn’t make it very practical. So looking at from their perspective, gun ownership is MUCH more purpose based than in the US, because that is how it is regulated.
Furthermore, it appears from what I have seen, Germans lack the “gun culture” of the US. Their attitudes, in general, like I said above, seem much more purpose based. And obviously their are way less owners as a percentage of the population. Given how much training and the cost of licensing and all of the rules they have to follow, I am not sure any of them deserve just a pejorative term.
They are very difficult to obtain, especially compared to the US, I agree. But if one wants to go through the process, most things ARE available. Which means their is always some potential for misuse. Which again makes me wonder (as above) do they look into things like political attitudes? I know they have laws against Nationalist groups, but obviously that just makes them curb some behavior not end it. Will they be looking at such things when it comes to licensing in the future?
First off, thanks for your informative posts. They seem to be confirming what I have found, for the most part.
Second off, they aren’t used for clay shooting sports? They point well, and while slower to work on doubles than an over under, can still pull it off with practice, and they are generally much cheaper than a good over under (which requires a lot more precision machining to build the action.) Over-unders are the preferred tool for these sports, but if one is more casual or can’t afford it, a pump action is a good entry level.
So many of the basic models don’t have any of that “tactical” stuff like a pistol grip or non traditional stock. In the US they are often used for bird hunting and small game. Some are purpose built to hunt turkey and deer.
So while the style may not be as popular, there, my point still stands the design and use in the US is still mostly hunting and sporting uses. It sounds like one CAN use them for hunting there, even if it is less common there as they prefer the side by sides and I assume over unders.
I am sure that was a thought on some peoples’ minds. It may turn out this guy got his Glock there as well. I would like to learn the outcome of the investigation, but I fear with it being in Germany, it may not trickle down to us in the weeks following. Maybe the BBC will keep on it and let us know. (I took 3 semesters of German, but don’t remember nearly enough to read media.)
Thanks again for your information.
I was on the subway in Oslo yesterday, and in front of me one guy was showing another guy a video on his phone of an assault rifle being disassembled. My thoughts at the time were that this was unusual and creepy for Norway. (In the US the oddest part of the situation would be the excellent public transportation.)
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Fuck. This.
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I will try this again.
As an American who lived for several years in Germany and who has many friends there, I apologize if any of my countrymen are being insensitive in their response to this attack. It is a tragedy, and the tragedy should be respected over the technical details of the weapons used and the laws governing them.
I know from my time there that owning, carrying, and even transporting firearms is difficult. I asked my friend, a medical student at the time and avid hunter, whether he would want to get a handgun. He looked at me like I was crazy. “No, that would be harder than medical school.”
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No, no, no, not at all - it’s absolutely vital to know whether they used, say, a MP5A3 with a 15 round magazine or a MP5A5 with a 30 round magazine. It really makes all the difference, especially when considering a racist mass murderer’s motivation.
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Yes - in my neck of the woods we don’t have, or at least don’t feel, a threat of gun violence yet, not because it’s completely nonexistent but simply because overall it’s just not all that prevalent. But in the past decade or so military hobbyist groups, previously fairly innocuous as far as I’d been aware, seem to have been quietly taken over by gun fetishists and people who get a kick out of wearing uniforms and waving (replica) weapons, usually while spouting revisionist propaganda. I know people who left such groups that they had been founding/key figures in, because they found the direction they’ve taken so upsetting. Some of my friends run an anime convention, and currently they’re trying to decide what to do about the number of right-wing nationalist military “cosplayers” who had quietly seeped in during recent years, and use the con to march around being, or at least feeling, intimidating.
And then there are the “hobbyist” and “hiking” groups which are actually right-wing paramilitary groups with a stash of illegally obtained real weapons, who use the “hobbyist” and “hiking” aspect to hold training camps out in the woods or whatever. (To nobody’s surprise a few years ago an investigation into one of these groups uncovered Russian financial and intelligence ties.)
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