As the number of Germans are obtaining the permit required to carry a pistol with a gas source according to a report in a newspaper. The number of Kleiner Waffenschein Antrag permit holders has nearly doubled in the past five years.
About 640,000 Germans currently have the license for alarm guns which is 3000 more than the close of the year according to research conducted by The Rheinische Post newspaper. The number of licenses has increased dramatically since 2014 when 260,000 Germans had this license.
The leader of Germany’s biggest police union the GDP claimed that recent statistics showed a “latent feeling of fear” within the German population.
“At at least, since the incident in Cologne cathedral square Cologne church square during New Year’s Eve 2015, people appear to be feeling increasingly unsafe,” GDP chairman Oliver Malchow spoke of an incident where numerous young men from North African origin harassed and stole from people who were celebrating. There was an increase in the number of applications for licenses following the incident.
“The so-called Kleiner Waffenschein (“small weapons allow”) is fairly easy to obtain in Germany The permit is usually accessible to anyone who is over 18 years old, who has never had prior serious criminal convictions, and who is believed to be “physically and mentally healthy.”
The permits permit individuals to carry a gun that can shoot loud blanks in public areas, however, these pistols can be kept in the home with the need for a license.
Potential issues
Experts have warned that these guns are very similar to real guns and are still deadly when used at close range and Malchow warned of potential issues caused due to a large number of starting guns on the streets.
“They suggest a false security or higher level of defense capability,” he said. “This is exactly what could make a situation worse and make the user the perpetrator.”
An effective way to boost safety on German streets is to increase police presence He added.
It collated the information from interior departments from each of the sixteen German states, revealed that 5.4 million guns were private throughout Germany at the end of 2018, which is 27,000 more than in the previous year. The majority of these were rifles, not handguns.
