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Germany: Ready to Raise Age for Gun Ownership
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Schily Said Ready to Raise Age for Gun Ownership
F.A.Z. BERLIN. German politicians are tentatively moving to tighten the country's gun laws after the shock of the events in Erfurt on April 26, when a 19-year-old expelled student returned to his old high school and killed 16 people before committing suicide.
According to Monday's edition of the newsmagazine Der Spiegel, German Interior Minister Otto Schily has drafted a seven-point program which contains a proposal to increase the minimum age for acquiring firearms for sporting use from 18 to 21.
Chancellor Gerhard Schr?der and the 16 state premiers, meanwhile, are to meet in Berlin on Monday to discuss the tragedy and draw possible legislative consequences from it, including measures to control violent programming and video games.
Last week, Mr. Schr?der agreed with the directors of both public and private broadcasters to set up a roundtable discussion on violence in the media. The broadcasters also made a commitment to Mr. Schr?der to air public service announcements against violence.
Critics say the main problem is with the commercial stations, but that government attempts to impose less violent programming would possibly fail on constitutional grounds.
Mr. Schily suggested in public comments last week that the minimum age for acquiring sports weapons should be raised from 18 -- the legal age in Germany -- by three years, arguing that the earliest phase of adulthood remains an emotionally volatile age. He is now advocating closer supervision of shooting clubs and a tightening up of the laws on the private ownership of weapons, according to Der Spiegel.
He is also suggesting that the private acquisition and possession of pump guns be banned altogether, the Hamburg-based weekly said. A white paper released by his Social Democratic Party on the weekend also called for tighter gun control laws.
Some other prominent German politicians are opposed to any moves to limit the rights of the youngest adults, however, although the opposition Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, said they were prepared to consider changes to the gun-control laws.
In an interview published in Sunday's edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Bavarian Interior Minister G?nther Beckstein of the Christian Social Union said he would support a measure to limit the bore of weapons used by members of shooting clubs to a maximum of .22 caliber.
The former student who killed 13 teachers, two students and a policeman in Erfurt before killing himself, Robert Steinh?user, was able to legally obtain his much more powerful weapons -- a handgun and a pump gun -- because of his long involvement in amateur shooting clubs.
http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/archive.asp?doc={C539EADC-8297-4EFE-A42A-BC64643CE000}&width=800&height=572&agt=explorer&ver=4&svr=4
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
F.A.Z. BERLIN. German politicians are tentatively moving to tighten the country's gun laws after the shock of the events in Erfurt on April 26, when a 19-year-old expelled student returned to his old high school and killed 16 people before committing suicide.
According to Monday's edition of the newsmagazine Der Spiegel, German Interior Minister Otto Schily has drafted a seven-point program which contains a proposal to increase the minimum age for acquiring firearms for sporting use from 18 to 21.
Chancellor Gerhard Schr?der and the 16 state premiers, meanwhile, are to meet in Berlin on Monday to discuss the tragedy and draw possible legislative consequences from it, including measures to control violent programming and video games.
Last week, Mr. Schr?der agreed with the directors of both public and private broadcasters to set up a roundtable discussion on violence in the media. The broadcasters also made a commitment to Mr. Schr?der to air public service announcements against violence.
Critics say the main problem is with the commercial stations, but that government attempts to impose less violent programming would possibly fail on constitutional grounds.
Mr. Schily suggested in public comments last week that the minimum age for acquiring sports weapons should be raised from 18 -- the legal age in Germany -- by three years, arguing that the earliest phase of adulthood remains an emotionally volatile age. He is now advocating closer supervision of shooting clubs and a tightening up of the laws on the private ownership of weapons, according to Der Spiegel.
He is also suggesting that the private acquisition and possession of pump guns be banned altogether, the Hamburg-based weekly said. A white paper released by his Social Democratic Party on the weekend also called for tighter gun control laws.
Some other prominent German politicians are opposed to any moves to limit the rights of the youngest adults, however, although the opposition Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, said they were prepared to consider changes to the gun-control laws.
In an interview published in Sunday's edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Bavarian Interior Minister G?nther Beckstein of the Christian Social Union said he would support a measure to limit the bore of weapons used by members of shooting clubs to a maximum of .22 caliber.
The former student who killed 13 teachers, two students and a policeman in Erfurt before killing himself, Robert Steinh?user, was able to legally obtain his much more powerful weapons -- a handgun and a pump gun -- because of his long involvement in amateur shooting clubs.
http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/archive.asp?doc={C539EADC-8297-4EFE-A42A-BC64643CE000}&width=800&height=572&agt=explorer&ver=4&svr=4
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
BERLIN, May 6 x Prompted by a school shooting massacre, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and state governors agreed Monday to raise the age at which Germans can buy firearms.
After three hours of talks, Schroeder said officials would work out proposals over the next few weeks that parliament could pass before its summer break.
Tighter gun control has drawn cross-party support since an expelled pupil fatally shot 16 people - mostly teachers - and himself at his former school in the eastern city of Erfurt on April 26.
On Monday, Schroeder suggested raising the minimum legal age for acquiring firearms for recreational use from 18 to 25, though he made plain that the states may only agree to an age limit of 21 - the most widely proposed solution.
By coincidence, the lower house of parliament passed new gun control measures the day of the shooting. The government now wants to amend the bill before it goes before the upper house, where the states are represented, on May 31.
In Erfurt, students from the stricken high school went to class Monday for the first time since the slayings, taking up temporary quarters at a former elementary school with replacement teachers brought in from across Germany.
Security officers were posted outside to ensure that only students got in.
Some 700 students in grades five through 12 from the Johann Gutenberg Gymnasium were offered four hours of classes with counselors present.
But attendance was voluntary and many chose to stay away. In addition, some teachers were attending funerals of their colleagues.
Robert Steinhaeuser, the 19-year-old suicide gunman, had been thrown out of the school last fall for faking a doctor's note.
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap05-06-182722.asp?reg=EUROPE
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878