Last year, hunters and sport‑shooters across Germany reported almost 50,000 firearms and firearm components as either stolen or missing. The figure comes from a Bild article that cites fresh data from the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
According to the National Weapons Register (NWR), there were exactly 5,537,407 registered weapons and components at the end of 2025 – 3.8 % more than in 2024. During that period, 48,579 weapons and components were reported as stolen or missing. Of those, 9,058 guns and 324 parts (9,382 items in total) were registered as stolen, while 38,277 guns and 920 parts (39,197 items in total) were listed as lost. This represents a 148 % rise compared with 2019.
Police officials have expressed alarm over the numbers. Manuel Ostermann, vice chair of the federal police union, said to the newspaper that “it is shocking that more than 9,000 weapons have been reported stolen”. He attributes the thefts to “careless criminals” and warns that whoever steals firearms will stop at nothing: breaking into private homes, cracking armored safes, and stealing live weapons. Ostermann added that the fate of the stolen weapons can only be guessed, but they “will probably end up on the black market and then in the hands of unscrupulous criminals”.