Well....Wiesbaden was actually the first German city to attempt this (around five years ago). So the way it goes....you define the weapon (it's not just pistols....it includes batons, knives and anything that could result in death).
You define a 'zone'....going from location 'X' to location 'Y'. Then you put signs up....saying from 7 PM to 5 AM....cops can encounter you in the zone, demand an ID, then frisk you (without any exception).
Do the cops patrol every night? No. There might be only two or three patrols over an entire week....for 3 hours each.
If you are caught in this situation with a weapon? After the frisk...the weapon is confiscated, and you get a summons to the city court house (say two to four weeks in the future). The judge will hear your details....read the report....then issue a fine (max of 5,000 Euro). The fine slant? They tend to lean toward the big number....you probably won't walk out with a simple 50 Euro fine.
If you argue about the ID and frisking? That gets the police crew to ask for back-up and could mean a bigger meeting with the judge....that you were denying the police their 'right'. In simple terms.....you'd be asking for more than a fine....you'd be asking for jail-time.
If you had drugs on you? Well....that gets into more of a judge's meeting and potentially more jail-time.
So this becomes an odd tool...where you have to train yourself to accept a frisk in a public situation.
A normal German? You could ask a 80-year old German if they've ever been frisked in their life.....with 98-percent saying 'no'. For me....other than at airport situations....I've never been frisked in my life.
Would frisking solve the knife issue? No, but it'd start to make you wonder about fines and the stupidity of carrying a knife around in public. For most folks....5,000 Euro lost...is a big deal.
Just a humble explanation.
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