In Germany, access to guns is controlled by the German Weapons Act (German: Waffengesetz), which adheres to the European Firearms Directive and was first enacted in 1972, and superseded by the law of 2003. This federal statute regulates the handling of firearms and ammunition as well as acquisition, storage, commerce and maintenance of firearms.
In a debate on stricter gun control after a school shooting that resulted in 16 deaths, German weapons expert Holger Soschinka asserted that "Germany has one of the strictest weapons laws worldwide - and it is sufficient".[1] However, others criticized it as too lax and argued that more control is needed, with one anti-weapons group describing the law as "unconstitutional" because it "puts the interests of sport shooters above peoples' right to life and physical integrity".[1]
While gun ownership is widespread,[2] and associations and ranges for shooting sports and the use of historical guns and weapons in festivals are not forbidden, the use of guns for private self-defence is restricted.
The German Ministry of the Interior estimated in 2009 that the number of firearms in circulation, legally and illegally, could be up to 45 million.[3] Germany's National Gun Registry, introduced at the end of 2012, counted 5.5 million firearms in use, which are legally owned by 1.4 million people in the country. About 1.5 million sport shooters in several thousand Schützenvereinen ("voluntary shooting sport associations") own and use guns for sport, about 400,000 hunters have a licensed gun, about 300,000 collect guns and about 900,000 own an inherited gun.[3]