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Thursday, March 28, 2024

German mass shooting reopens gun law debates

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German mass shooting reopens gun law debates
German mass shooting reopens gun law debates

Germany's government faced calls to toughen gun ownership laws and step up efforts to track far-right sympathisers, after the suspect in one of its worst mass shootings since World War Two was found to have published a racist manifesto.

Soraya Ali reports.

Filip Geoman's daughter was shot dead on Wednesday (February 19).

She was one of nine victims killed in one of Germany's worst mass shootings since World War Two.

(SOUNDBITE) (German) FILIP GEOMAN, WHOSE 35-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER MERCEDES KIERPACZ WAS KILLED, SAYING: "My child was murdered here.

She was only 35 years old.

She came here to eat a pizza and drink a coke.

And then she was shot down.

I ask all of Hanau to understand what happened here: a tragedy." The presumed killer, belonged to a gun club and published a racist manifesto online before opening fire at two shisha bars in Hanau.

He is then believed to have killed himself and his mother.

Questions are being raised across the country as to how a man with such views was able to buy the weapons.

Chancellor Angela Merkel outlawed the sale of guns to members of extremist groups in October and ordered online platforms to inform police about hate content.

Those measures came after the killing of a pro-immigration German politician in June.

And an attack four months later on a synagogue and a kebab shop by an anti-Semitic gunman who livestreamed the attack.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Friday (February 20) that more will be done.

(SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN INTERIOR MINISTER, HORST SEEHOFER, SAYING: "The danger because of right-wing extremism, anti-Semitism and racism is very high in Germany.

We will increase the police presence across Germany and we will increase the protection of sensitive institutions, especially also mosques." Popular support for far-right groups is growing in Germany, driven in part by a rise in immigration.

At least five of the Hanau victims were Turkish nationals.

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