AfD members must hand in weapons
Members of the AfD party must hand over their firearms in accordance with current court rulings. The Administrative Court of Düsseldorf made this decision in two proceedings. The court found that members of a party suspected of constitutional hostile activities, in accordance with the Weapons Act, should be classified as unreliable, and dismissed the lawsuits of two AfD members whose firearms possession permits had been revoked (Az.: 22 K 4836/23 and 22 K 4909/23).
The plaintiffs, a married couple, were therefore obliged to surrender or destroy their firearms - in the case of the husband, 197 weapons, and in the case of the wife, 27 pieces - as well as the corresponding ammunition.
The AfD had been designated as a suspected case of constitutional hostile activities by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia in Münster confirmed this classification on May 13.
The Administrative Court of Düsseldorf allowed the appeal against these judgments, which the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia would have had to decide on.
Given the current court rulings, the AfD members involved in the judgments were mandated to relinquish their weapons. Despite contesting the verdicts, the Administrative Court of Düsseldorf overruled the decisions made by the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia, which had classified the AfD as potentially engaging in constitutional hostile activities and revoked the firearms possession permits of two AfD members.
