The Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia has ruled in summary proceedings that being a member of an anti-constitutional organization is sufficient to be barred from owning a firearm under firearms laws. This also applies to members of the AfD, even if the party is currently merely a suspected case.
This was announced by a spokeswoman for the court at the request of the German Press Agency (dpa). The reasoning behind the decision is the classification of the AfD as a suspected case of right-wing extremism by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungsschutz). This classification was confirmed by the Higher Administrative Court (OVG) of North Rhine-Westphalia in Münster on May 13 2004.
In two summary proceedings, the OVG emphasized that an AfD membership is already a sufficient basis for the revocation of a firearms license. It is considered especially aggravating if a party member is not just an ordinary member, but actively supporting the party as a functionary.
In its expedited rulings, the 20th Senate of the OVG claimed that it is also aggravating that one of the plaintiffs did not unequivocally and persistantly distance himself from anti-constitutional endeavors within the AfD. The court referred to inflammatory statements or intimidating behavior by party members.
The two summary proceedings were proceeded by rulings by the Düsseldorf Administrative Court at the end of June, in which it ruled that the respective AfD members must hand in their weapons (Apollo News
reported on this). In doing so, the authorities had previously revoked the plaintiffs' gun permits, which they attempted to challenge in court. In the main case, four appeal proceedings are still pending at the Higher Administrative Court. According to the court spokeswoman, no hearing dates have been set yet.
