According to a recent response from the Federal Ministry of the Interior to a small question from the Left Group in the German Bundestag, approximately 1,500 extreme right individuals and Reichsbürger had a “firearms permit” by the end of 2023. This information was reported by the newspapers of the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” (Thursday editions).
The ministry was unable to provide more recent numbers for the year 2024 at the time of the report. As of December 31, 2023, the ministry stated that 1,039 right-wing extremists, 393 Reichsbürger and self-governing individuals and 37 people from the spectrum of “constitutionally relevant delegitimization of the state” held a firearms permit.
By the same date, the National Weapons Register registered 2,212 permitted firearms on right-wing extremists, 1,606 on Reichsbürger and 116 on individuals from the “constitutionally relevant delegitimization of the state” category.
The Left criticized the high number of armed right-wing extremists. “The arming of the right-wing and Reichsbürger scene remains high” said Left Bundestag member and interior policy expert Martina Renner to the RND. “Roughly 1,500 scene members had access to nearly 4,000 permitted firearms in 2023 alone. The dark figures are likely to be even higher” Renner added.
The disarming of the scene, on the other hand, is progressing “in small steps.” “Those who aim to topple the democratic constitutional state should not be carrying weapons. Otherwise, the security risk posed by the right-wing scene will continue to escalate” the Left member stated.