Germany already has more restrictive gun laws than the United States, and now, in an effort to root the populist Alternative for Germany political party out of government, top security officials have announced their intentions to confiscate guns from some 1,500 citizens deemed as far-right extremists. They are also working to tighten background checks for those wanting to acquire guns.
Mike Hammond, legislative council to Gun Owners of America, remembers that the German government has tried the gun confiscation experiment before.
"Immediately after Kristallnacht, the Germans enacted legislation imposing complete and total gun control," he notes. "Now they don't seem to have learned anything at. They are taking a disfavored segment of society -- previously it was the Jews, now it's the – quote—'right wing' -- and banning them from owning guns as well."
As for how the ban worked out for the Jews, Hammond thinks what happened in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising should serve as a warning: "[They] were crushed by the Germans because they didn't have any guns at all."
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser says the far right poses the biggest extremist threat to democracy in Germany.
