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Germans own nearly 5.5 million firearms legally, according to the German Firearms Register, but research by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper estimated that up to 20 million illegal guns are also in circulation, London’s Daily Mail reports.
Those illegally held firearms are increasingly being used to victimize lawful German citizens, such as the nine people murdered and 36 injured in Munich last month by a man armed with a pistol he’d obtained illegally through the “dark Web.”
One result: Applications for permits to carry non-lethal weapons in Germany—blank pistols, tear gas pistols, flare guns, etc.—are hitting record highs, up nearly 50 percent since last year, RT.com reports.
