The German political party AfD, which is Alternative for Germany, isn't the kind of political party that a lot of people on the left are fond of. It doesn't matter what country they're from, either.
And recently, some members of that party ran into an issue with their gun licenses, which looks really bad based on some recent events.
First, let's look at what happened. (Translated by Google)
The Magdeburg Administrative Court has dismissed the lawsuits of two AfD members and a former member against the revocation of their firearms permits. The court stated that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing under firearms law because they were AfD members or had supported the party. The AfD in Saxony-Anhalt is an organization that operates against the constitutional order in Germany.
...
For the AfD members' lawsuit to be successful, the court found, it would have been necessary for "the individual member or supporter to persistently distance themselves from the behavior and statements of other members that characterized the AfD Saxony-Anhalt's conduct." However, the court stated that this was not evident in the plaintiffs' case: "The fact that the plaintiffs had held firearms permits for years without attracting any attention under firearms law is not sufficient to assume the existence of an exception to the general presumption."
So, basically, they couldn't get their permits back because they were AfD members.
But AfD is a legitimate political party in Germany. They hold seats in most state parliaments, for example.
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And, after the new administration there flip-flopped on some issues, they're now the most popular party in Germany.
Migrations from other parties – esp. CDU/CSU – to AfD are sticky. For a time last year, the novel Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) pulled some AfD voters away, but many of those have returned, and others have come too. This is not a temporary blip.
— eugyppius (@eugyppius1) April 9, 2025
The ultimate whys as to how this happened aren't relevant here, but Beege Wellborn at our sister site Hot Air did a great write-up over there about it.
What is relevant is that these three lost their gun permits and were told they had no standing because they were still members of the party--the same party that is now the most popular in all of Germany.
Sure, German politics don't impact us here in the United States so long as they stay out of Poland or France, but the truth is that many people want the same laws Germany has in place here in the good old US of A.
And sure enough, they will start using it to disarm people from groups they don't personally like, no matter how mainstream their ideas might actually be. There are those who think of Republicans as members of a hate group, after all. Do you think they'd hesitate about taking our guns?
Remember how New York wanted to review your social media accounts before it would issue a carry permit? Do you think that no one would see your support for conservative causes and raise an eyebrow?
Then there are the laws that say issuing authorities can deny you a permit if you're not "suitable." That's currently been used to deny a permit to one Massachusetts man who has done nothing wrong, but he lives with people who are a little alarming, but do you really think it would stop there?
If anti-gunners get their chance, this is exactly what they'll do here.
And I think you all know it.
