Tough German laws require checks for gun ownership

Insight

Tough German laws require checks for gun ownership

In Germany, gun ownership has long been seen as a privilege rather than a right.

Two mass shootings there led to even tougher gun laws. The most recent was in 2009.

That’s when a former student opened fire at his high school. He killed 15 before turning the gun on himself.

CCTV America’s Guy Henderson has more on the gun laws work and its effects.

Germans can own a Glock nine millimeter, semi-automatic pistol, but only if they’re a member of a gun club, undergo around a year of tests and have criminal records checked every three years.

German gun control law is among the toughest anywhere. If you own a gun here, the federal government knows about it.

In Germany, only members of the law enforcement agencies are allowed to possess semi-automatic weapons.

In the U.S. it’s much simpler. Proponents of the German regulations said it’s no coincidence that murder and violent crime rates are far lower here than they are across the Atlantic.

They hold German gun laws up as somewhat of a model for other parts of the world.


Thomas Ruskin on Germany’s gun control laws

For more about Germany passes tough gun control laws, CCTV America’s Mike Walter spoke to Thomas Ruskin, a former detective investigator with the New York Police Department.