The Grupp Case: Who Really Checks Hobby Hunters Psychologically?

Wolfgang Grupp, the 84-year-old former head of textile company Trigema, publicly disclosed a suicide attempt in mid-2025 and spoke in a letter to former employees about suffering from severe late-life depression.

Nearly a year later, he informed the German Press Agency that the revolver he had kept “for security reasons” was no longer accessible to him and that his son was keeping the weapon under lock and key. His hunting license, too, was gone.

The personal story belongs to Grupp. But the implications for hunting policy extend beyond this individual case: in Germany, anyone who has once obtained a hunting license and firearms ownership certificate generally retains them for decades without any systematic, regular assessment of their mental fitness. A firearms-related evaluation is only triggered when authorities have specific doubts about an individual’s reliability — typically only after incidents have entered the official record. In the current case, the initiative came from the son, not from the state.

Swiss Reality: 30’000 Armed Private Individuals, Virtually No Oversight

In Switzerland, around 30’000 legally armed hobby hunters regularly carry firearms into the countryside and kill more than 120’000 wild animals every year. For hunting eligibility, cantons require theoretical and practical examinations focused on wildlife knowledge, firearms handling, and cantonal hunting law. “Physical and mental fitness” is mentioned in training materials, but in practice it is rarely assessed in any standardized way — neither comprehensively at the point of entry nor on an ongoing basis.

In concrete terms, this means: someone who obtains their hunting license at age 25 can still be out hunting at 75 without ever having been required to undergo a psychological evaluation. Age-related depression, early-onset dementia, vision loss, addiction disorders, or acute personal crises are not something authorities actively need to identify — they depend on reports from family members, physicians, or the hobby hunters themselves. This gap in hunting law did not arise by accident; it reflects the political clout of the hobby hunting lobby.

International Comparison: The Netherlands Reveals the Scale of the Problem

In 2019, the Netherlands introduced the “E-Screener,” a mandatory psychological test for all gun owners, prompted by a mass shooting in which, according to the Supreme Court, the firearms license should never have been granted given the individual’s existing mental health issues. The result: roughly one in five hobby hunters failed the test, and in the province of Limburg, as many as one in four. The Dutch hunting association immediately demanded the abolition of the test and advised its members to deliberately delay scheduling their appointments. The procedure was later discontinued on methodological grounds, but the fundamental question remains: a significant share of actively hunting private individuals do not meet basic psychological standards.

In Austria, Tierschutz Austria has called for stricter regulations following several fatal incidents involving hobby hunters, particularly recurring psychological fitness assessments. Switzerland has so far introduced neither an E-Screener nor any comparable recurring fitness evaluation. Hobby hunting associations invoke “personal responsibility” as their argument — a line of reasoning that is empirically untenable in the Grupp case: the weapon was only removed after a suicide attempt and at the initiative of the family, not as a result of any government oversight.

The Geneva Model: Professionals Instead of Private Arms

The canton of Geneva abolished hobby hunting entirely as far back as 1974. Since then, professionally trained wildlife wardens employed in cantonal service have handled all wildlife management tasks. As government employees, these individuals are subject to the standard fitness, training, and continuing education requirements applicable to public service roles involving the carrying of firearms, including medical and psychological assessments. Where interventions are necessary, they are carried out in a planned, documented manner with clear lines of accountability.

The Geneva model is the only system in Switzerland that structurally answers the question “Who regularly verifies the fitness of armed individuals?” A transfer to other cantons is possible at any time under Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the Federal Act on Hunting (JSG), since the organization of hunting operations is expressly a matter for the cantons. Patent hunting, district hunting, and state- or government-managed hunting are equivalent under federal law.

The Unanswered Question

The Grupp case is told in German media as a personal story. From a hunting policy perspective, it is a textbook example of a system in which firearms and hunting licenses remain in private hands for decades without the state or associations actively monitoring the psychological fitness of those who hold them. That a son has to lock away his father’s weapon is humanly understandable. As a security architecture for a constitutional state, it is not enough.

Netherlands: Psychological Test Exposes Unfit Hobby Hunters | Tierschutz Austria Calls for Stricter Gun Laws | What International Psychology Studies Say About Hobby Hunters | Dossier: Hunting Ban Switzerland

Help in Crisis Situations

Anyone affected by distressing thoughts or worried about someone close to them can find anonymous, free help around the clock in Switzerland from the Dargebotene Hand at telephone number 143, and from Pro Juventute (for children and young people) at 147. In Germany, the Telefonseelsorge is available at 0800 / 111 0 111, and in Austria at 142.