Local news in the area that I live (Wiesbaden) announced that the city council and mayor had come to a decision.....to move forward with a new concept.....a Waffenverbotzone (an area free of weapons) for the city of Wiesbaden. Our local news folks covered this.
Necessary? Well....you can go and pull up the crime blotter and note probably forty cases where a knife or weapon of some type was used in a robbery, assault, or threat situation. But that tended to involve ALL of the city entire city (it's dozen-odd neighborhoods). The chatter here over the weapons free zone is that it'll only encompass the Westend and middle part of town (the shopping district), and it'll be designed to linger only for three years.
Basically, if the cops were to encounter you and just wanted to pursue a random check....you'd have to cooperate while they frisk you, and present an ID if asked. The type of weapons discussed? Mostly knives. Course, you might bump into a creative guy claiming to be a carpenter, who happened to have a hammer in their possession.
Most Germans (working-class type) are going to read the details....shake their head, and wonder what kind of town has to declare some weapon free zone. And if caught? There's some minor charge that as a minimum....means you have to appear in front of a judge and explain why you had to carry a weapon in such a zone.
Will it end the threats around town? No. In fact, I would suggest that whatever area that they've designed for this.....will be picked up by the teenagers and chatted about as a 'no-go' area, which will be an joke to them.
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