Weapons deprivation for AfD members: Saxony-Anhalt sets sample case

This article was first published by NTV.

A decision by the Magdeburg Administrative Court on the right to possession of weapons of AfD members could have nationwide effects. The reason for this is the justification of the court for his decision at the end of March.

Two AfD politicians and a former party member had previously been permitted to have weapons. They resisted the decision, but failed in court on March 28. The court attested a combative-aggressive attitude towards the elementary principles of the constitution “.

It further justified his decision that it would have been necessary “that the individual member or the supporters persistently of behaviors and statements of other members who shaped the appearance of the AfD Saxony-Anhalt,” said the MDR. But that didn’t happen. The fact that the plaintiffs have had weapons law permits for years without being conspicuous under weapons law is not sufficient to accept the existence of an exception to the presumption of the rule, “the administrative court continues.

Now, based on its other AfD members in Saxony-Anhalt and also, similar steps would have to fear. In 76 cases, the country’s weapons authority examines the withdrawal of permits for hunting and sports weapons, the Ministry of the Interior reports at a request from the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ). And the arsenal of the party members and supporters should be considerable. According to the SZ, 330 firearms alone in Saxony-Anhalt.

“The weapon possession of extremists is a danger, both for the democratic constitutional state and for every single citizen. Illegal gun ownership has to be combated in every respect with police and criminal processes,” warned Interior Minister Tamara Zieschang from the CDU. Therefore, “the weapons authorities are now in duty to examine the weapon law reliability of the members of the AfD and the young alternative,” continued the interior minister.

The decision in Saxony-Anhalt could soon go to school nationwide. “If a party is classified as secured right-wing extremist, this is of course important: weapons do not belong in the hands of enemies of our democracy,” said Baden-Württemberg’s Interior Minister Thomas Strobl of the SZ. The AfD in Saxony-Anhalt’s constitutional protection had already classified right-wing extremist at the end of 2023 at the end of 2023. The constitutional protection recently decided to classify the party accordingly. However, the public classification is currently exposed – however, it is not from the table.

In the neighboring federal state of Thuringia, the AfD state association has been classified as proven by the state constitutional protection since March 2021. There is also a three -digit number of weapons of members of the AfD – 154 pistols and rifles are said to act according to SZ. The tests of the gun certificates also started there. In 22 cases, the country had already initiated a cancellation proceedings against weapon permits, the SZ interior ministry said.

At the beginning of May, the Higher Administrative Court of Münster decided in favor of an AfD member and his wife, reports (LTO). This was justified by the fact that the AfD in North Rhine-Westphalia was still a suspected case at the time of decision and not as “secured right-wing extremist”. The classification as a suspected case is therefore not sufficient. According to LTO 197, the AfD member alone has weapons. He wanted to have another one on his gun ownership card. According to the report, his wife has 27 firearms.

But even the classification as “secured right-wing extremist” by the constitutional protection is not a guarantee that such a withdrawal has existed, explains Michael Brenner, professor of constitutional and administrative law at the University of Jena, to the SZ. “The case law will probably not participate in a flat-rate withdrawal among AfD members. However, the requirements for withdrawal of the weapon permit should not be as high as before.” You will “have to check the individual case every time and justify a decision individually,” said the expert. In Thuringia you want to proceed exactly the way. Each individual case would be checked by the responsible weapons authority, it says.

Due to the uncertainty and the exposed public classification of the Federal AfD as “secured right-wing extremist” by the Federal Constitutional Protection, other federal states-Hamburg, Hesse, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony or Rhineland-Palatinate are still waiting. “The high classification is not yet final, so you will have to proceed all the more carefully when it comes to weapons,” said Brenner of the SZ. If the high classification is confirmed, however, it would have to be checked whether “the pure membership in the AfD will already lead to arms under weapons law”, said the Bavarian Interior Ministry of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.

Baden-Württemberg is aiming for a closed procedure for the 16 federal states. A vote on this could take place at the next interior ministerial conference from June 11th to 13th in Bremerhaven.

And what does the AfD itself say? She sees the procedure as an attempt to put the party under pressure. “The procedure of the authorities in Saxony-Anhalt as well as in other federal states obviously serves primarily to intimidate AfD members by means of repressive measures by the executive,” said the Bundes-AfD at the request of the SZ. According to the party headquarters, no AfD member has so far been legally convicted of a criminal offense related to gun ownership. However, this alone is not enough to have weapons, as the decision in Magdeburg showed.

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