Police report more gun crime
More crimes involving firearms, more violations of the Weapons Act: The current federal crime report shows that the police are increasingly dealing with weapons crime. In particular, illegally converted blank-firing weapons pose a special challenge.
The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) registered more violations of the Weapons Act and the War Weapons Control Act in 2023 than in the previous year. Compared to the previous year, the number of cases in Germany under the Weapons Act increased by 6.3 percent to around 35,800 cases, as shown in a current federal crime report. In addition, there were 563 violations of the War Weapons Control Act (an increase of 4.3 percent). According to the report, the majority of these cases are likely to involve the illegal acquisition, possession, and carrying, as well as the illegal import of weapons.
In 2023, more crimes involving firearms were registered than in the previous year - the number increased by 6.7 percent to around 9,100. "The number of cases in which a firearm was threatened increased by 8 percent and the number of cases in which a firearm was fired increased by 5.5 percent compared to the previous year," it said. However, the proportion of crimes involving firearms among all statistically recorded cases is very low at 0.15 percent.
Blank-firing weapons are converted
According to the BKA's assessment, the professional, illegal conversion of blank-firing weapons, especially of Turkish origin, and the illegal manufacture of firearms continue to particularly occupy the investigators. For example, the State Criminal Police Office in Schleswig-Holstein secured 40 converted blank-firing pistols from a truck from Turkey in June 2023.
"For years, former war and crisis regions have been a source of firearms and the illegal trade in these weapons," the experts explained. "In particular, the states of the Western Balkans are still in focus with regard to the high availability of firearms, even more than 30 years after the end of the wars." The smuggling of these weapons mainly takes place by land. So far, no organized illegal smuggling of firearms from Ukraine to Germany has been detectable.
The clearance rate for violations of the Weapons Act was around 92 percent in 2023, and for violations of the War Weapons Control Act it was around 83 percent. The BKA attributes these high values to the fact that weapons crime is a control crime - a weapon and a suspect are often found together.
The European Union has expressed concern over the rising weapons-related crimes, particularly the illegal conversion of blank-firing weapons in Germany. The European Union's justice and home affairs agency has requested further cooperation and information sharing between German authorities and their EU counterparts to combat this transnational issue.
Despite the high clearance rates for weapons-related crimes in Germany, the European Union has urged the country to strengthen its border controls and surveillance to prevent the illegal import of firearms, as some of these criminal activities are linked to trafficking networks operating beyond German borders.
