Back in December of 2018....Wiesbaden did something that no other German city had done....declare a weapons-free-zone.
Basically, a section of the mid-town area was declared to be a zone where after 9 PM....police-patrols were sent into the 'zone' and they could ask people to present an ID, and submit to a frisk (really for drugs, and weapons).
Does it occur every night? No. They will readily admit that they might do five or six patrols, and other than some drugs....nothing much turns up. Occasionally, a knife will show up.
Consequences on a weapon showing up? Well....you get a summons to a court, and face a slightly more hefty situation, with a higher chance of conviction and doing serious time.
So....if you review German new sites over the past year....a number of German cities are either going this way, or having a conversation over the idea.
A 'zone' being a whole city? NO. There simply isn't the manpower to achieve that, and lets be honest....you are typically looking at a four-man patrol....maybe once or twice a week....walking a square kilometer area, and being more stringent in confrontation.
I'll also say for the record....if you were out at midnight....drunk in a weapons-free zone, and asked for an ID, there's pretty good odds of a confrontation with the drunk getting extra charges. This probably has been a shock to some folks....more heavily boozed-up folks in a weapons-free zone.
More of a PR 'stunt'? Well.....yeah, some folks would suggest that.
These zones covering a fair amount of territory? NO. If you judge the size of Wiesbaden (as a whole)....it's less than one-percent of the city that falls into a weapon's free zone.
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