The Office for the Protection of the Constitution considers armed “Reich citizens” potentially dangerous, as do right-wing extremists. They are checked regularly. With what result?

Stuttgart (dpa/lsw) – Between February 2020 and the beginning of August 2022, constitutional protection officers in Baden-Württemberg answered more than 194,000 inquiries from weapons authorities in connection with weapons law. In around 460 cases, “Reich citizens”, right-wing extremists and other groups with anti-constitutional aspirations did not receive a new gun license or an existing one was revoked, according to a response from the Ministry of the Interior to a parliamentary question by the Greens in Stuttgart.

The so-called rule request to the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been in effect since the amended Weapons Act came into force in February 2020. This is intended to prevent certain groups from legally acquiring or keeping weapons. The approximately 150 weapons authorities in the country have to ask the Office for the Protection of the Constitution whether the person in question is known there as an extremist. This is called reliability testing.

“Reich citizens” and “self-administrators” question the legitimacy of the Federal Republic. They often refuse to pay taxes. The nationally active groups include associations with names such as “German Confederation of States” or “German Kingdom”. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution ascribes around 21,000 followers to the scene.

As can also be seen from the state parliament question, the constitutional protection officers and the state criminal investigation office also took action of their own accord – and that was before the third weapons law was amended. They have informed the weapons authorities on their own initiative in dozens of cases since 2017. Most of them were “Reich citizens” and right-wing extremists.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution considers the danger emanating from armed “Reich citizens” and “self-administrators” to be fundamentally high. Even if not everyone commits crimes with their weapons, extremist conspiracy narratives offer them supposed legitimacy to defend themselves against the propagated enemy images, as the Ministry of the Interior wrote in its response.

“This includes politicians, state representatives or other groups of people who are considered “co-conspirators”. This can lead to individuals or groups of people feeling called upon to take action and also to use armed force against their respective enemy images,” said it further.

The same applies to armed right-wing extremists. According to the Ministry of the Interior, in this area there is also the fact that an alleged legitimacy of violence is not only derived from conspiracy ideologies. “Rather, the legitimacy of right-wing extremists to use violence can also be based on central right-wing extremist attitudes, such as racism or general xenophobia.”

Recently, a case in the Main-Tauber district had caused a stir: on suspicion of illegal possession of weapons, the police searched a property in Boxberg on April 20, where a “Reich citizen” shot himself. The man fired an automatic rifle several dozen times from five different firing positions at 14 police officers. Two officers were injured. Investigators found an arsenal of weapons at the scene.

The Firearms Agency reviews every five years whether there is still a need to own firearms.