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For the numbers game, this matter is fairly simple: simply remember that Germany's population is 1/4 the USA's.
Multiply by 4 the number of gun deaths in Germany from 2000-2022. Then compare that by the actual US number
OR
Divide by 4 the number of gun deaths in the US from 2000-2022. Then compare that to the actual German number.
If the US's guns deaths are still higher than Germany's even after doing the math, that means the US has much more of a gun problem than Germany does.
Private legal and licensed ownership of pistols is pretty rare in Germany, but that is not to say you can't buy one with a wad of cash and talk to the right bad guys that will sell you one. Germany has organized crime gangs in the big cities including Hamburg, which is also a port city. Port cities always have lots of illicit merchandise moving in and out. The gangs make good money selling drugs and guns, just like anywhere else.
Legal ownership of guns in Germany is mainly hunting rifles and small calibre target shooting rifles & pistols. All require you to join a hunting or sport shooting club, take a gun safety class, pass a test and have a clean criminal record (no violent crimes).
I just read the latest local news report, that the shooter emptied 9 magazines in the shootings. Police responded in less than 5 minutes after the first call with a special weapons squad, and went right into the church building (unlike what happened in Uvalde, TX). The shooter then fled to the top floor and shot himself. Type of weapon not given, however the shooter had a sport shooting firearm permit. The fast police response is credited with saving many lives.
I see the Jehovah's Witness people standing on the streets with signs and pamphlets in many cities in Germany, just like in the US. I don't know much about them, but I have heard their strict and strong beliefs have caused a lot of family conflicts when taken to the extreme. The shooter was an ex-member of JW.
If the rest of his family were baptized in true believers then he was likely disfellowshipped and shunned by them. As revenge for being cut off and isolated this may turn out to be a mirror of those faiths were some are killed by their faithful if they leave.
Ah! Germany, the culture whose philosphers inspired all the failed -isms.
This event is more proof that government bans don't work. People find ways around the bans. More proof that governments are ineffective at managing human behavior.
They say the gunman acted alone in Thursday's attack, and later took his own life. His motives are unknown.
The suspect, named only as Philipp F, 35, is a former member of the religious community, who had "ill-feelings".
Dramatic footage has now emerged that appears to show the suspect firing many rounds through a window of the hall.
All those shot dead were German nationals.
Officers were called at about 21:15 local time (20:15 GMT) on Thursday, to reports that shots had been fired in the building on Deelböge street, Gross Borstel district, police spokesman Holger Vehren said.
Officers who went in found people who "may have been seriously injured by firearms, some of them fatally", he said.
"The officers also heard a shot from the upper part of the building and went upstairs, where they also found a person. So far we have no indications that any perpetrators fled."
Noooo, it just happens in America a HELL OF A LOT more often!
But the real difference is that this event has prompted ze Germans into a debate on how to tighten laws to make it less likely to happen again in the future, whereas 'over there' it prompts people to say 'we need more guns'! Which explains exactly why this is a rare event in Germany but an extremely common one in the USA.
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