Arms Register

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An arms register is used for national arms control and arms control (e.g. the UN arms register ).

European Union

The basis for weapons registers within the European Union is Article 4.4 of EU Directive 2008/51 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of May 21, 2008 amending Directive 91/477 / EEC. This guideline stipulates that a computer-aided, centrally or decentrally set up weapons register must be introduced by December 31, 2014 at the latest and must always be kept up to date.

Germany

The National Weapons Register (NWR) has been in operation in Germany since January 1, 2013 as an electronic file for the registration of all firearms requiring a license and their owners in Germany . It is located at the Federal Office of Administration and is run nationwide. The introduction of the NWR has implemented the above-mentioned EU Directive 2008/51 / EC into national law.

Before 2013

Since 1972, all firearms requiring a permit must be registered and registered in Germany. Since 2003, arms dealers have had to report all sales to the competent authority, which then compares them with the declarations made by buyers. Registration takes place in the local, mostly communal, weapons authorities . This data was not merged until 2013. The systems of the individual authorities also differed. By 2013, 577 authorities - police or municipalities - stored the information on firearms. They weren't networked with each other.

However, the regulatory authorities have always forwarded the information about the owner of a license under the law on weapons / explosives to the residents' registration office in the past. This notice also moved with the person, when moving, to the new residents' registration office. The data on whether a person legally owns weapons or explosives has already been communicated to law enforcement officers in the past when an EMA query was made.

history

After the rampage in Winnenden , the black-red government coalition introduced a central register with Section 43a into the German Weapons Act until 2012 . The joint leaders of the project were the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Ministry of the Interior . "After the rampage in Winnenden, the establishment of a central weapons register is extremely important for us," said Interior Minister Heribert Rech . The project managers Joachim Sturm and Albert Hermann know, “that a weapons register does not prevent rampages. The motor vehicle register in Flensburg does not prevent car accidents either. ”Her main concerns are faster searches by the police and a modern administration. Both should improve the security of the citizens. They also hope that the National Arms Register will become a pioneer in Europe.

The establishment of a nationwide uniform and computer-aided weapons register has been included as a so-called prioritized project in the Germany-Online Action Plan , as well as the motor vehicle system (carry out vehicle registration processes online), civil status (introduction of a nationwide civil status register ) , the registration system (online registration information ) and the implementation of the EU Services Directive.

This central weapons register is to be made available to authorized users on the basis of copies of the local registers created.

Data volume

An essential part of the central component of the NWR is an automated register database. In this database, the relevant data from the local weapons authorities are held redundantly across Germany. Initially, only the data relating to the handling of weapons and ammunition requiring a permit is recorded in the NWR. The following are shown:

  • Data of the responsible weapons authority (e.g. name, address)
  • Personal data (natural and legal person as well as associations of persons, e.g. name, address, date / place of birth, nationality, transmission blocks )
  • Data on the permit (e.g. permit type, gun ownership card, gun license, prohibitions)
  • Data on the weapon (e.g. manufacturer, model; but also standardized catalog values, including on the weapon category and caliber designation)

Liechtenstein

The central weapons authority in Liechtenstein is the national police . This also keeps an electronic register (weapons register) for business and file management in the context of its legal duties and for documenting the origin of weapons.

The weapons register was set up in Liechtenstein with the Ordinance of June 16, 2009 on Weapons (Weapons Ordinance). In principle, all firearms that are subject to registration must be recorded in the weapons register.

Austria

On October 1, 2012, a Central Arms Register (ZWR) was introduced in Austria as an electronic database in accordance with Directive 2008/91 / EC (Directive 91/477 / EEC) . The status of your (own) firearms can be called up online using a mobile phone signature or citizen card .

Switzerland

Similar considerations were hotly debated in Switzerland . Computer-aided registrations are already being kept in the Swiss cantons. In 2013, the Federal Council voted with a majority of one vote in favor of a central arms register. In 2018 it was agreed that the cantonal arms registers would be linked to one another via a platform and that there would be no nationwide arms register.

Canada

After the rampage at the Montréal Polytechnic in 1989 , an arms register was introduced in 1995 due to public pressure. In 2012 this register was abolished. The province of Quebec wanted to continue to use the data, which was rejected by the government because “such a register is too expensive and also does not prevent firearms crime.” In addition, data protection officials criticized the fact that the police requested data up to 22,000 times a day.

criticism

Objections to a central weapons register come mainly from hunters, riflemen and collectors who see the collection of security-relevant data from law-abiding citizens in one place as an impending danger, especially in times of Wikileaks . The German Federal Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger takes a similar point of view : “The more data is collected centrally, the greater the probability that a data leak will lead to data misuse.” Wikileaks is also a warning about data economy .

Similar criticism comes to the other online projects. Data protectionists doubt that a central federal register is necessary and have long warned against a super data collection authority based on the GDR model. The former German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Peter Schaar, also assessed the transfer of registration data by the municipalities as "extremely critical" at the time.

In 2012, the German Association of Towns and Municipalities criticized the fact that data protection was not adhered to because no IT security concept had been defined in accordance with the standards of the BSI ( Federal Office for Information Security ) and there were no information barriers, the latter in contrast to the population register. Agencies that are denied electronic data retrieval of the residential address from the population register could consequently obtain this information about a person at risk directly from the National Arms Register. He also criticizes the enormous time and personnel requirements for the filling, as well as the low cost of the software.

Web links

literature

  • 1. Albrecht, Legal Framework for the Establishment of a Computer-Aided National Arms Register, VBlBW 2010, 274 ff.
  • 2. Albrecht, National Arms Register to come into force in 2012, MMR-Aktuell 2011, 321101.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ EU Directive 2008/51 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of May 21, 2008 amending Council Directive 91/477 / EEC on the control of the acquisition and possession of weapons - viewed on January 1, 2011
  2. ↑ Current report from the Federal Administration Office  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from January 2, 2013@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bva.bund.de  
  3. ↑ Federal Minister of the Interior presents National Arms Register Act ( Memento of the original from 23 September 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Federal Ministry of the Interior - press release dated December 7, 2011, at bmi.bund.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmi.bund.de
  4. ↑ Computer-aided weapons register , in Hamburger Abendblatt, April 15, 2003
  5. ↑ DPOLG Sachsen  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on January 1, 2011@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.dpolg-sachsen.de  
  6. ↑ Police Baden-Württemberg Establishment of a national weapons register included in the Germany-Online Action Plan - viewed on January 1, 2011
  7. ↑ Information from the Federal Ministry of the Interior, No. 6 December 2010 ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Pages 10–11, PDF file - accessed January 11, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmi.bund.de
  8. ↑ Weapons register included in the Deutschland-Online action plan , in Heise-online, November 20, 2009
  9. ↑ NWR publication of the federal government  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.7 MB)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bva.bund.de  
  10. ↑ Art 49 para. 1 Ordinance of 16 June 2009 on weapons, weapon accessories and ammunition (Weapons Ordinance; WaffV).
  11. ↑ According to Art. 49 Paragraph 1 WaffV, these are: prohibited weapons, weapons subject to a license to acquire weapons and in conjunction with Art 16 Paragraph 1 lit. a to c WaffG (acquisition without a weapons acquisition license): single-shot and multi-barreled hunting rifles and replicas of single-shot muzzle-loaders; Government-designated repeater rifles that are commonly used in sport shooting and for hunting purposes in Germany, as well as single-shot rabbit killers.
  12. ↑ Registration of weapons in the Central Weapons Register (ZWR). In: help.gv.at. Federal Chancellery , accessed on September 26, 2017 .
  13. ↑ a b Federal Council uses leeway to implement the EU Weapons Directive , Aargauer Zeitung , March 2, 2018
  14. ↑ Session - National Arms Register is coming , at srf.ch, accessed on July 26, 2018
  15. ↑ Canada: Abolition of arms register approved. ORF , March 27, 2015, accessed on September 24, 2017 .
  16. ^ National arms register abolished. Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag , March 19, 2012, accessed September 24, 2017 .
  17. ↑ FDP politician sees a need for action in the data protection Hamburger Abendblatt of December 1, 2010 - viewed on January 1, 2011
  18. ↑ Data protectionists against the central federal register
  19. ↑ Federal data protection agency criticizes the disclosure of registration data Heise online - viewed on January 1, 2011
  20. ↑ Federal Association for the Implementing Ordinance of the Act to Establish a National Arms Register (PDF; 15 kB)