Word: guns
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...fans, paintball may seem like a harmless enough sport, a game of skill and tactics in which teams of players shoot colored paint pellets at one another. But under controversial new gun laws and other measures being considered by the German government, games that are deemed to "simulate the killing" of your opponent - which, according to some, could include paintball - may be banned...
...This is about a ban on degrading games in which killing or injury are simulated," Wolfgang Bosbach, deputy chairman of the Christian Democratic Union's (CDU) parliamentary faction, tells TIME. "In general, we need tougher gun laws because we have to protect the public from the misuse of weapons, and we also need to take our laws seriously." (See pictures of America's fascination with firearms...
...There has been heated debate over Germany's gun laws ever since a school shooting in the southern town of Winnenden on March 11, when 17-year-old Tim Kretschmar went on a rampage, killing 15 people before turning the gun on himself. After much wrangling between the conservative CDU and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government, the parties have finally agreed on a number of measures aimed at tightening Germany's gun controls, which are already quite strict compared with other European countries. (Read about Merkel in the TIME...
...measures include more spot checks on gun owners at their homes to ensure that weapons and ammunition are being stored and locked away properly; raising the legal age for using a high-caliber weapon for target practice from 14 to 18; amnesty for people who hand over illegal weapons to the authorities; and biometric security systems to ensure that weapons are being used by their rightful owners. After the Winnenden shooting, it emerged that Kretschmar had used his father's gun, which he found in his parents' bedroom. His father had a permit to own the gun, but current...
...gun lobby is powerful in Germany. There are more than 15,000 gun clubs with at least 2 million members. During the summer, popular shooting festivals - where people drink beer, enjoy the sun and shoot at targets - take place in towns and villages across Germany. According to the Interior Ministry, there are 10 million registered weapons in Germany and - more worryingly - up to 20 million illegal weapons. Germany tightened its gun-control laws in 2002, after a school shooting in the central town of Erfurt left 18 dead. But after the Winnenden shooting earlier this year, campaigners lobbied the government...