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 didnt 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 Europes Web site at www.per.hqusareur.army.mil/services/mwrd/index.htm.
German police checking gun registrations
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.
One would imagine they enjoy this situation!
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.
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