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In Germany, 100 people accumulate a total of 66,545 weapons.

That is - counted down - around 665 weapons per person.

These are the private owners with most of the weapons assigned in the National Arms Register (NWR).

The number also includes "decorative and salute weapons", said the federal government in a response to a small request from the Greens in the Bundestag, which WELT has received in advance.

Whether and how authorities should regulate privately owned weapons more strongly is a much debated topic.

In recent years there have been several politically motivated firearm attacks.

The racist bomber from Hanau, for example, legally owned two weapons, although he suffered from paranoia and was admitted to a clinic in 2002.

The 2019 attacker in Wächtersbach, who shot an Eritrean in the stomach for racist motives, was an accomplished sports shooter.

In Islamist attacks - for example in Berlin in 2016 or in Vienna in 2020 - perpetrators murdered with firearms.

Privately owned weapons and ammunition pose a major threat to society, says Irene Mihalic, domestic political spokeswoman for the Greens.

“Not because, for example, sport shooters do not use their weapons responsibly for the most part, but because a few exceptions are enough to cause great damage.” At the beginning of February 2020, almost 27,000 people were registered in the NWR with a valid weapon ban.

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The total number of stored weapons and weapon parts fell slightly nationwide compared to the previous year to just under 5.35 million.

In contrast, the number of small gun licenses increased by six percent to around 710,000.

According to Mihalic, this is a "worrying high."

Berlin's Interior Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD) criticized this development at the end of 2020.

Above all, crime related to alarm weapons rose sharply in the capital.

Geisel called in WELT AM SONNTAG an examination of whether changes in gun law could lead to more stringent regulations.

Irene Mihalic is the domestic political spokesperson for the Green Group

Source: dpa / Fabian Sommer

The Federal Government is convinced that the current firearms law restricts private access to firearms “to what is necessary.” The firearms law was last revised at the beginning of 2020 in order to combat abuse by extremists and criminals.

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Among other things, weapons authorities are obliged to involve the protection of the Constitution in background checks.

With the expansion of the National Arms Register (NWR), the "entire life cycle of firearms and essential parts should be traceable".

This makes the disappearance of weapons in the illegality more difficult.

3700 weapons are considered lost

Around 18,800 weapons and weapon parts are currently stored as "lost" in the NWR.

A little more than a third of them were stolen by a criminal offense - for example theft or robbery.

Almost 3700 weapons are simply considered lost.

The rest has been lost “in some other way”.

Weapons and ammunition that have disappeared in security authorities have caused a stir recently.

The Bundeswehr alone has lost 60,000 rounds in the past ten years, as WELT reported in mid-2020.

In Leipzig, an elite right-wing armed forces soldier is currently on trial for allegedly hiding weapons and explosives in his garden.

WELT video report from the Bundeswehr shooting range in Viereck

60,000 shots are missing.

How can ammunition disappear from the Bundeswehr?

WELT has visited a military training area, shows processes and possible weak points in the video.

Source: Martin Heller and Christian Schweppe / WELT

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The Federal Government's current answer shows that in 2020 “a service weapon (training weapon, P 9 M FX pistol, manufacturer Glock) - without ammunition - was registered as missing” by the Federal Police.

The loss of 17 pieces of cartridge ammunition, a handling training weapon (“not capable of firing”) and an irritant spray device were reported to the customs administration.

According to the federal government, the Bundeswehr (as of February 3, 2021) was missing a total of "four handguns (two pistols, one signal pistol, one submachine gun) and 2,968 individual pieces of ammunition of different caliber".

And further: "The investigations into the causes of the loss of 2,792 ammunition articles are still ongoing." Explosives were not lost in the past year.

Mihalic says she is very concerned about the high number of lost weapons.

“It's not the scarf in the tram that was lost here, but a highly dangerous, fatal instrument.

We have to plug the loopholes in the area of ​​illegal weapons better. ”At the moment the federal government is neglecting the statistical processing of firearms crime.

Mihalic: "Victim statistics are still missing as well as valid knowledge about how many crimes are committed with weapons and ammunition from legal stocks."