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Hunting

Massive weapons arsenal discovered at recreational hunter's home

An enormous weapons arsenal is discovered at the home of a 69-year-old recreational hunter in the Main-Tauber district. The public prosecutor's office and customs authorities are investigating.

Editorial team Wild beim Wild — 23 March 2021

The Ellwangen public prosecutor's office is conducting investigations together with the Stuttgart customs investigation office into a 69-year-old retiree from a municipality in the Main-Tauber district.

60 military weapons in a secret room

The initial focus of the investigation was the suspicion of illegal importation of an assault rifle and ammunition from Switzerland. The suspect possessed a difficult-to-access secret room that was filled from floor to ceiling with illegal items: a total of around 60 military weapons, 140 handguns, 70 long guns, 8,000 rounds of ammunition, and 6 kilograms of propellant powder.

The man is a recreational hunter and held a permit for the possession and carrying of certain civilian weapons. Many of the weapons found were loaded. Some of the loaded handguns were hidden in specially prepared hollowed-out books.

Investigation for violations of the War Weapons Control Act

The suspect was released after his preliminary arrest on the instructions of the Ellwangen public prosecutor's office. Investigations into suspected violations of the War Weapons Control Act, the Weapons Act and the Explosives Act are ongoing.

More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier Psychology of recreational hunting we put research, motives and social consequences into perspective. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.

The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.

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