Germans and Weapons

 1.  How many Germans hold a permit/license?  

Presently, using data from 2018....around 1.5-million Germans.

2.  How many weapons are private German 'hands'?

The number presently (using 2015 data I could find) is around 5.5-million, with the majority of owners in Bavaria NRW, and Baden-Wurttemberg. 

3.  Key elements of the German permit?

(1) National ID card, (2) background check, (3) physical/mental review of your medical records with a doctor signing you off, (4) a hunter/shooter class, (5) acquiring a gun safe for your house with no other people to have access unless they accomplish all of the mandates. 

4. Obstacles usually in getting a permit?

Most Germans will say that background reveals any past threats, assaults, or convictions that most people ought to be denied upon.  

Adding to this....the doctor looking over your records will note alcohol/drug abuse (would disqualify you), or mental issues. If you were delusional, or bi-polar....pretty much zero chance of a permit.

5.  Illegal gun possession?

If you pay attention to the police blotter business....I'd say that some bust occurs almost daily where a drug-dealer or mafia-character has a police raid and illegal guns are in his possession.....meaning not only loss but certain added prison time.  

6.  Chief reason to own a weapon?

This is a debate.

If you lined up a thousand Germans (it's mostly men, and I doubt if women make up more than 10-percent of the group).....it's a hunter thing.  

Second, would be interest in target shooting, and self-defense is way down to maybe 1-percent of the group.

Lets be honest here....if you felt a threat at your house, a police-call would get the cops there in roughly five or six minutes.  Most all Germans live in urbanized areas (village/towns) so home invasion is an awful rare thing.

This hunter thing that big of a deal?  Just in my local area....a 2-mile circle of the village....there must be at least 25 stands, and at day-break...at least twice a week, I'll hear a gun-shot or two, with wild boar or deer shot.  

I knew of an American (2005 period) that was in on various hunting trips with his hunting associates, with some trips leading down to Austria.  At some point, he joined a club in the Wiesbaden region, and was the police-connection when wild boars were hit by cars....getting a call at 1 AM to come out and haul-off the dead boar.  

7.  Is there a national database?

Well....up until the last couple of years....it was a state-by-state thing, and mostly resembling a paper-contract between you and the local police.  Your name, and the gun registration were on a database for the state folks.  

8.  German gun laws going back a hundred years?

Yes, long complicated story but they were mandating certain things already around the 1910 era.  Anyone who says the Nazis wrote the original laws?  No....laws were already existing in the Kaiser-era.  

9.  This national ID card a big deal in 'control'?

There is no doubt that the card makes some significant security in the whole apparatus.  

10.  German mass shootings non-existent?

Look....you can have a mass-killing event accomplished by use of a tractor-trailer rig, or a simple SUV.  We've had killing attempted with nut-jobs with swords, knives, and axes.  Couple of years ago, some idiot tried to buy a significant amount of weed-poison and had the idea of killing people by the water-supply.....that only failed because the lawn salesman argued about the amount that a legit yard needed and got terribly suspicious over the quantity discussion.  

When you have seen a mass shooting in Germany....it's typically by pistol, and the causality number is typically in the five to ten range.