"To protect wildlife" nearly every species has a protected status. You can only shoot large game (deer, pigs, etc) after there has been a wildlife survey done of your property and the types, sexs and age groups have been determined. Then you are told what animals of what age groups and how many of them are to be shot. At this point most people have to get a warden to accompany them out to actually shoot these beasties and the Jaegermeister tells you which specific individual to shoot.
Firearms are so regulated, controlled and expensive that hardly anyone bothers to get them and go through the hassles of keeping them. The socialist government and its propaganda machine have insured that there is a stigma attached to any weapon (read "evil self firing crime device") other than extremely expensive multibarrel breech loaders. This creates a society where only a very small percentage of the population is capable of affording a respectable (read "good") gun, therefor there really isnt much of a "gun culture".
So, in the rare instances where there is someone that can come up with the money and is willing to go through all the problems of getting and storing a firearm, they have to have their wildlife surveyed, make a jaegermeister appointment, and wait all day in the cold rain (=German hunting season) for the jaegermeister to decide that the pig you can shoot is the ancient 3 legged tumor ridden one.
Makes you want to hunt there doesnt it?
They also have the same situation we would have if we were that restricted. I know 'some people' from when I lived in Germany who could've gotten me anything I wanted on the black market. And I do mean anything. The Czech and Russian mobs are all over the place in Europe even if the govt denies it.
I really wanted an AK or Uzi, but I was afraid to get one because I would have had to smuggle it back to the States in my household goods. Probably could have gotten by with it since from what I understand only about ten percent of the ISO containers on the cargo ships actually get checked.