Germany plans national weapons registry, ‘biometric’ gun controls
Call it the buried lead of the week: as most publications shake their heads in wonder at Germany’s decision to ban paintball and laser tag in response to a school shooting in March, few are giving much play to the furtherance of plans to curb gun violence by registering all the country’s weapons and requiring “biometric” controls.
The paintball and laser tag ban follow one of the worst school shootings in the country’s history which left 15 dead.
German newspaper Der Spiegel, in its coverage of the planned rules, completely neglects to mention plans for biometric weapons controls.
According to reports in the Berliner Zeitung and Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung newspapers on Friday, games like paint ball and laser tag are to be banned in Germany in the future, and people who violate the law could be fined up to €5,000.
“These games simulate murder,” Wolfgang Bosbach, who heads the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) in the German parliament, told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. He said a deal had also been reached with German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.
The German Paintball League claims about 1,000 people in the country are active in the sport and there are more than 200 facilities where it is played. The organization has sought for years to portray the sport as a safe one. At tournaments, players even eschew red paint because of its optical similarities to blood and the guns used in the sport are referred to as “markers.”
Meanwhile, over in the UK’s Telegraph, the draconian gun control rules barely scored a mention. The paper notes in the last two paragraphs of a Thursday report:
The new rules would also grant authorities more rights in conducting checks with people owning guns, the sources said.
Sources in the SPD said the parties were also moving towards on agreement on the creation of a nationwide weapons register and were considering setting up biometric security locks for weapons’ stores.
Finally, it appears the BBC caught up with this angle, even though their report’s lead still doggedly focuses on the banned sport. They note:
It is also thought that “biometric controls” for gun storage might be introduced, the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg in Berlin reports.
That would mean that anyone owning and storing guns at home would need to use their own fingerprint to open the safe or cupboard, our correspondent says.
Some quick searching around for biometric gun control measures turned up a few options for owners, the most popular apparently being the fingerprint safe, available from various outlets.
Are you a gun owner? How would you like being forced to purchase a biometric gun safe? Do you have trigger locks already? How would you feel if the United States launched a national weapons registry? Would you sign up or resist?
If you aren’t a gun owner, do you believe in gun control? Has Germany completely lost its senses here, or are you in favor?
– Stephen C. Webster
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