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Berlin (dpa) - The number of right-wing extremists known to the authorities with weapons permits increased significantly in 2020.

As the federal government announced in a response to a small inquiry from the left-wing parliamentary group, at the end of December the security authorities across Germany had around 1,200 actual or suspected right-wing extremists who legally owned weapons - an increase of almost 35 percent compared to the end of 2019.

"The increase proves the increasing threat posed by neo-Nazis and racists," said the Bundestag member Martina Renner (left).

"As expected, the involvement of the secret service has not proven to be an effective measure against the arming of the right-wing scene," added the domestic politician, who herself has received multiple threats from right-wing extremists.

From the point of view of the security authorities, however, the increase is also due to the fact that they take a closer look and to the most recent amendment to the gun law.

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The number of so-called Reich citizens and self-administrators who own weapons remained unchanged year-on-year.

As of December 28, 2020, 528 people from this group of people had a weapon license, according to the answer that the German Press Agency has received.

"Reichsbürger" do not recognize the state and German laws and refuse to pay taxes, social security contributions and fines.

Since 2016 the security authorities have been trying to withdraw their weapons permits from members of the scene.

They succeeded in 790 cases within three years.

The proceedings, however, often drag on longer because those affected are legally defending themselves.

At the beginning of December, a marksman who worked for the Federal Armed Forces procurement office in Ulm had committed suicide with a firearm.

Shortly before, it became known that the Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD) was investigating several employees of the regional office for quality management because they might belong to the so-called Reich citizens or self-administrators.

Last October, the Federal Ministry of the Interior stated in an answer to a written question from Renner that the increase is likely to be "partly due to the increased number of people in the field of right-wing extremism".

In the report for the protection of the constitution for 2019, the right-wing extremist potential is given as 32,080 people.

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At the beginning of 2019, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the “wing” of the AfD and the AfD junior organization Junge Alternative as suspected cases.

The "wing", founded in 2015 by the Thuringian AfD country chief Björn Höcke, has no longer been classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected case since March 2020, but as a certain right-wing extremist movement against the free democratic basic order.

He had formally dissolved last year after pressure from the AfD federal board.

The "Tagesspiegel" reported that the potential for right-wing extremism had grown to 33,300 people in 2020, of whom 13,300 were assessed as being violence-oriented.

There are two types of gun permits: If you have a gun license as a hunter, you can buy a gun that you can use for hunting.

Sports shooters can also apply for a gun ownership card and use it to use the guns they have purchased on the shooting range and also to transport them there.

The gun license entitles the holder to carry a gun in public, for example for self-protection because someone works as a bodyguard or accompanies the transport of valuables.

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The new gun law has been in effect for about a year.

It stipulates that when applying for a permit and every three years thereafter, it is checked whether someone has the necessary «reliability and personal suitability» - and that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is automatically asked whether the gun owner has been noticed as an extremist.

Conversely, it has also become easier for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution to use a request in the National Arms Register to determine whether someone who has landed on their radar has a weapon license.

On the other hand, an automatic comparison of all actual and suspected extremists with the weapons register is not legally permitted.

The withdrawal of a weapon license must be justified on a case-by-case basis.

This is only relatively easy if someone is proven to be a member of a banned organization or party.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210202-99-263833 / 2