Despite the tightening of the law - more extremists with weapons permits

Exclusive Despite the tightening of the law, more extremists with weapons permits As of: October 23, 2026 • 6:11 a.m

Actually, according to the will of the federal government, right-wing and left-wing extremists should be consistently disarmed. An NDR research shows that this project is not progressing as desired.

Weapons in the hands of extremists - that's what the state wants to prevent. Two years ago, the coalition at the time tightened the gun law to give the authorities more options to take away weapons from extremists or not to grant them permission at all.

But as a query by NDR to all the interior ministries of the federal states shows: the hoped-for effect is apparently not happening. The number of extremists with gun permits is actually increasing.

According to the research, more than 1,600 extremists had firearms permits as of December 31, 2025. More than 1,300 of them belonged to the right-wing extremist spectrum or the “Reichsbürger” scene. The authorities also recorded left-wing extremists, Islamists, radical lateral thinkers and other extremists. However, these groups only play a minor role in gun ownership.

The figures are to be understood as minimum information, as not all countries have sent complete data. The actual number is probably higher. For the year 2024, the NDR survey revealed at least around 1,500 extremists with weapons permits.

The firearms permits also include the small firearms license, which only allows you to carry blank pistols or defensive sprays. A separate permit is required to possess live firearms.

The exact number of firearms in the hands of extremists remains unclear even after the query because only eleven of the 16 federal states provided information about it. What is clear, however, is that there are more than 3,000 firearms. Here too, people from the right-wing radical spectrum, including the “Reichsbürger” scene, own the most weapons. According to federal government figures, in 2024 more than 4,000 firearms were in the hands of right-wing extremists, “Reich citizens” and self-governors alone.

There could be several reasons for the increase. On the one hand, both the number of people counted by the authorities as extremists and the number of all weapons licenses in Germany have increased. It is therefore statistically expected that the number of extremists with weapons permits will also increase.

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Extremists own the most firearms in Baden-Württemberg (630), Saxony (449), Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (440), Hesse (418) and Rhineland-Palatinate (382). For Saxony-Anhalt, the Ministry of the Interior there only mentioned a “mid three-digit range”. Several federal states did not provide any data on this, including the highly populated states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia.

Weapons and security authorities nationwide are continually trying to revoke extremists' permits and firearms. The local weapons authorities are usually responsible, and they in turn rely on information from the state Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the police or the public prosecutor's office. A complex undertaking that can fail in many places. Gun owners also often sue against the gun authorities' decisions - always successfully.

These difficulties are also reflected in the numbers: According to available data, extremists' weapons licenses were revoked around 250 times last year. Since two federal states provided no or no usable data, the actual number could be higher. In the previous year, according to the federal government, 360 weapons licenses were confiscated from neo-Nazis, "Reich citizens" and self-governors alone.

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The weapons authorities in the districts and cities pose "significant challenges" to the rules for revoking weapons permits, says Markus Mempel, spokesman for the German District Association. According to the law, people are considered unreliable to have a firearms license if they have pursued activities against the constitutional order within the last five years or are a member of or supporter of organizations that do so.

This has been determined by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which, for example, assesses the AfD state associations in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia as definitely right-wing extremist. AfD members and officials in these federal states can therefore have their weapons licenses revoked - and the authorities are trying to do that.

The Higher Administrative Court of Saxony-Anhalt ruled in August this year that members of the AfD in the state are considered unreliable under weapons law. The court considered it legal that the weapon licenses of three AfD members could be revoked because the AfD regional association was against the constitutional order.

However, says Markus Mempel, the classification by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution alone is often not enough in court. In addition, “the case law is very inconsistent,” which makes it even more difficult in practice. According to Mempel municipalities, clearer legal requirements and nationwide standardized standards that would be used to assess the reliability of gun owners could help.

When asked, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which implemented the last tightening of gun laws, referred to the responsibility of the states. The latest gun law changes are a “longer-term process.” The Federal Ministry does not comment on how the states used their legal options to confiscate weapons.

This topic in the program: tagesschau.de | More extremists with gun permits | Oct 23, 2026 | 6:10 a.m