After mass shooting, Germany revisits hate speech, gun control debates
- Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday said there were multiple clues that the suspected Hanau gunman had been motivated by the ‘poison’ of racism
- Driven in part by a rise in immigration, popular support for far-right groups is growing in conjunction with a shift away from the political mainstream
The 43-year-old presumed killer of nine people in two shisha bars in the southwestern town of Hanau had posted the document, espousing conspiracy theories and deeply racist views, online.
The suspect, who is believed to have killed himself and his mother, belonged to a gun club, raising questions as to how a man with such ideological convictions managed to gain membership and to obtain the weapons used in the attack.
“We need new and stricter laws to regularly and thoroughly check owners of hunting and firearm licences,” Bild newspaper wrote on its front page. “We immediately need more [intelligence] positions to monitor right-wing radicals and intervene before it’s too late.”
Germany’s prosecutor general said on Friday that the suspect had a licence for two weapons, and it remained unclear whether he had contacts with other far-right sympathisers at home or abroad.
In October, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government outlawed the sale of guns to members of extremist groups monitored by security agencies, and obliged online platforms to inform police about hate content.
Those measures followed the killing of a pro-immigration German politician in June and an attack four months later on a synagogue and a kebab shop in Halle by an anti-Semitic gunman who live-streamed his actions.
At least five of the Hanau victims were Turkish nationals, Ankara’s ambassador to Berlin said on Thursday as his government demanded a robust response, calls echoed by representatives of Germany’s large Kurdish community.