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Germany again tightens rules governing (American's) privately-owned firearms
Stars and Stripes ^ | January 2, 2003 | Jon R. Anderson

Posted on 01/03/2003 7:13:26 PM PST by tarawa

Germany again tightens rules governing privately-owned firearms

By Jon R. Anderson, Stars and Stripes European edition, Thursday, January 2, 2003

HEIDELBERG, Germany — Officials are again tightening the rules governing privately owned firearms among U.S. military and civilian employees within Germany.

Now, even personally owned weapons that are stored unused in unit arms rooms and military rod and gun clubs must be registered with the German government.

Gunowners have until Dec. 1 to comply or guns will be confiscated and disposed of, according to a recent Army announcement. Those in violation of the new rules could also face disciplinary action.

The new rule is the latest evolution in gun regulation changes that began in 1999, designed to put U.S. servicemembers and military civilians under the same gun laws followed by German civilians.

Until then, U.S. personnel enjoyed a relatively simply registration process similar to privately owned car registration.

Under the new rules, however, U.S. personnel who want to keep and use their own weapons for hunting and sport shooting must obtain a special permit, called a Waffenbesitzkart. To do that, German law requires completion of an in-depth hunting course, which usually takes about three months, or active participation in a sport shooting club, which usually takes about six months to join.

U.S. personnel who didn’t want — or have time — to deal with the hassle had the option of storing their weapons in their unit arms room or at the local military-run rod and gun club until they transferred out of Germany. But not any more, under the latest rule change.

Firearms “that are not registered with German authorities by Dec. 1, 2003, or otherwise legally disposed of in time — i.e., shipped out of Germany, turned in for destruction or sold to authorized persons — will be considered contraband and disposed of in coordination with host nation authorities,” according to the Army announcement.

The procedures for complying with German registration law as well as existing Army regulations can be found on U.S. Army Europe’s Web site at www.per.hqusareur.army.mil/services/mwrd/index.htm.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Germany; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist
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1 posted on 01/03/2003 7:13:27 PM PST by tarawa
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To: tarawa
Hmmmm....Hitler's returning?
2 posted on 01/03/2003 7:15:07 PM PST by goodnesswins
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To: tarawa
I hear the echo's of 1938,193,19,1....
3 posted on 01/03/2003 7:16:02 PM PST by Winston Smith
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To: afuturegovernor; Audit_Jesse; ECM
Ping!!!

If you want on or off my Germany ping list, let me know.
4 posted on 01/03/2003 7:19:11 PM PST by Sparta
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To: tarawa
Have I mentioned lately that Germany should go piss up a rope?
5 posted on 01/03/2003 7:19:31 PM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
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To: goodnesswins
I don't think he ever left.

Heck these people haven't shaken off an aristocratic monocracy yet. None of Europe has.
6 posted on 01/03/2003 7:21:57 PM PST by lizma
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To: *bang_list
bang
7 posted on 01/03/2003 7:23:48 PM PST by The Obstinate Insomniac
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To: tarawa
This is pure unadulterated BS...Gestapo actions re-emerging and U.S. soldiers being affected. We should pull completely out of that country and let them go their separate ways...albeit probably back to goose-stepping Nazi's....This Germany is a poor excuse for a country...it's an emberassment to NATO and other countries tyring to get ahead.
8 posted on 01/03/2003 7:25:40 PM PST by GreenCell
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To: tarawa
And, OUR government will help them. Makes me sick. Another country I don't want an assignment for.
9 posted on 01/03/2003 7:25:42 PM PST by HogFixer
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To: goodnesswins; Winston Smith

German police checking gun registrations

10 posted on 01/03/2003 7:26:35 PM PST by Sparta
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To: tarawa
What purpose does having US troops in Germany serve now that the Soviet threat is gone?

We need to pull out of Germany, especially if they are going to harass American servicemen with obscene regulations.

11 posted on 01/03/2003 7:27:35 PM PST by Mulder
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To: Mulder
There still are some good things to see and do in Germany and it used to be a great assignment but, the Neo-Socialist Pre-Nazi's have ruined everything.....
12 posted on 01/03/2003 7:29:59 PM PST by GreenCell
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To: GreenCell
My husband used to want to travel to Europe - England, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, etc.....as he has never flown across the pond. Over the last few years that desire has been blotted out - because they have become so CRAZY in their politics.
13 posted on 01/03/2003 7:33:32 PM PST by goodnesswins
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To: tarawa
Hmmmm.....maybe they're planning on starting another world war and you can't have private ownership of guns if that's your plan....
(After all, they were successful at that twice in a row)
(.....of their "many" real successes)
</sarcasm>
14 posted on 01/03/2003 7:33:44 PM PST by Fiddlstix
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To: Mulder
"We need to pull out of Germany, especially if they are going to harass American servicemen with obscene regulations."

The land of Himmler, Fassbinder and Goebbels is itself an obscenity. Nothing left of it now but a pack of cowardly degenerates and fascist corporatists desperately trying to find a safe place for their money. Why we waste money protecting these arrogant vermin from the sand goblins is beyond comprehension. But we have also wasted a lot more lives and money by putting clapped out Army generals and the odd Kraut scribbler in the SecState slot. Such people tend to overestimate [by orders of magnitude]the costs we might incur by telling all of the Eurotrash states to go pound sand on their dime, not ours.

15 posted on 01/03/2003 7:39:14 PM PST by Bedford Forrest
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To: tarawa
So? Several states have outrights bans on soem guns.
16 posted on 01/03/2003 7:41:29 PM PST by PatrioticAmerican
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To: PatrioticAmerican
Germany's greatest problems have never arisen as a consequence of the private ownership of guns. Actually, it's been the other way around - Deutschlanders have suffered mightily from the state monopoly of violence.

One would imagine they enjoy this situation!

17 posted on 01/03/2003 7:48:52 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: tarawa
The new rule is the latest evolution in gun regulation changes that began in 1999

Actually, that process began in 1928, when the Weimar Republic enacted the first of a series of "gun control" laws that ended up assisting the Nazis in seizing and maintaining power.

This particular act has a ring to it. From Regulations Against Jews' Possession of Weapons, enacted on November 11, 1938:

§1 Jews (§5 of the First Regulations of the German Citizenship Law of 14 November 1935, Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 1333) are prohibited from acquiring, possessing, and carrying firearms and ammunition, as well as truncheons or stabbing weapons. Those now possessing weapons and ammunition are at once to turn them over to the local police authority.

§2 Firearms and ammunition found in a Jew's possession will be forfeited to the government without compensation.

18 posted on 01/03/2003 8:21:02 PM PST by Imal
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To: goodnesswins
Well..., the current mess in Germany looks a lot like the Weimar Republic.
19 posted on 01/03/2003 8:36:47 PM PST by expatpat
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To: PatrioticAmerican
From what I hear, UK gun laws make Germany, to say nothing of New York State, look like Texas.
20 posted on 01/03/2003 8:44:08 PM PST by Clemenza
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