As has already been noted elsewhere, Germany's already tight gun control laws (possibly soon to get even more restrictive) did nothing to prevent a bloody murder spree almost simultaneous with a similar crime in Alabama. What hasn't been much discussed, though, is the extent to which Germany's laws have not only failed to prevent bloodshed, but have also driven the majority of firearms in that country beyond the reach of the law.
Non-compliance with harsher gun laws is a common event."
-- Dr. Franz Csaszar
In 2003, the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey noted (PDF) that German civilians legally owned 7.2 million firearms. Outside the law, however, the Small Arms Survey estimated that between 17 million and 20 million guns are illegally owned by Germans (a figure with which the German Police Union agrees). Not only is that a remarkable ratio between legal and illegal weapons, it also suggests that Germany's 82 million people are rather better armed than is usually assumed.
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In fact, that's the story across Europe, where, say the folks in Geneva, "public officials readily admit that unlicensed owners and unregistered guns greatly outnumber legal ones." Restrictive laws haven't disarmed Europeans; instead, they've drive gun ownership into the shadows, turning it into an act of rebellion fueled by the black market.
Writing in Gun Control and the Reduction of the Number of Arms (PDF), a white paper published in 2000 by the World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities, Dr. Franz Csaszar, a professor of criminology at the University of Vienna, Austria, said, "non-compliance with harsher gun laws is a common event."
Csaszar also points out:
With results similar to those which result from alcohol prohibition, harsh gun control is known to increase the illegal production, trading and dissemination of arms. Moreover interconnections between the black market in arms and other, more general black markets should be taken very seriously.
Basically, gun laws aren't really capable of reducing the availability of firearms when people are unwilling to obey those laws and black markets are ready to provide what can no longer be purchased from legal retail outlets. Not only does tightening gun restrictions -- or other laws that many people find objectionable -- result in mass defiance, it also breeds illegal behavior that can have unintended consequences throughout society.
As horrible as deliberate, premeditated mass murders are, there's no magic remedy to be found in laws or regulations. For good or for ill, life can't be perfected through legislation -- and attempting to do so may create problems you never imagined.
email J.D.: civilliberties (at) tuccille.com
You might also enjoy these:
- Those peaceful Europeans own more guns than you think
- Charlotte Gun Rights Examiner: Multiple victim public homicide: Lessons of shootings in Alabama & Germany
- St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner: Two vastly different sets of gun laws; two very similar outcomes
- Gun Rights Examiner: Wrong reactions to shooting sprees make us more vulnerable
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Comments
Unjust laws breed contempt for just laws.
I spent about a year in Germany, mostly in a mid-sized, industrialized town in the central western coal region. There were a lot of shooting clubs and I knew quite a few people who owned guns, not pistols, but rifles for game-hunting.
There is a general opinion among the Germans that guns are not that necessary. To the horror of my Green Party friends I once dated a German soldier. They found his interest in guns to be kind of asocial. It would be normal here and nobody would think it's weird outside of some of our major cities where there is gun-control (like NYC).
Guns are not entirely banned. But, I have a bad feeling about this. I'm afraid this shooting, which there are some questions about, may be a pretext for a big gun grab there. In spite of everything that has happened to Germany, I'm afraid the people still do not have enough power in numbers to resist.
You are probably aware of similar shootings followed by gun grabs in other countries such as the big one in Tasmania, Australia. The reason for the gun grab - the whole story is highly questionable. It is of concern that the pattern we are seeing here in the U.S. is occurring simultaneously in our friends' countries, as well.
Another interesting point that I just thought of. The Germans really need to be armed and this is why: After the wall came down, a lot of vicious criminals from the former Soviet Union came into Germany and brought lots of weapons - some of them unique - into the west. The Russian mafia took over the Reeperbahn, literally kicked the club and brothel owners out on the street and took over.
Too long of a story to tell here, but I am personally aware that a wave of crime and interesting weaponry flooded into Germany. It may be that is were many of the illegally held weapons there came from.
There appears to be a correlation between mass non-compliance with a particular law and that law's lack of common sense justification.
The vast majority of us do not commit murder, rape, robbery and the like, because normal and good people know such is wrong; their conscience tells them so, and whether or not there exists a law has little or no bearing on the matter.
On the other hand, gun control laws, many traffic laws, laws against prostitution, laws prohibiting some drugs and the like; these laws are commonly ignored and disregarded.
Many-quite reasonably-think: it's nobody's business if I own guns, I'm not harming anyone by driving 75-80 rather than the state-imposed limit of 65, it's nobody's business if I engage in contracted consensual sex with another adult, it's nobody's business which mind-altering substance I choose to-or not to-use...
At best, laws are merely helpful suggestions, and at worst overly intrusive, a violation of individual rights, and possibly creating much more harm through the resulting unintended consequences...
Anonymous said: “Unjust laws breed contempt for just laws.”
Just as true is that an overwhelming abundance of laws, constantly in flux, impossible to be known of fully understood, encourages a general disrespect and disregard of law.