Saxony-Anhalt revokes AfD hunters' firearms licences

The Higher Administrative Court of Saxony-Anhalt has legally confirmed that firearms licences can be revoked from members and supporters of the AfD state association there, which is classified as a confirmed right-wing extremist organisation.

According to BILD research from 12 September 2026, 17 hobby hunters are said to have lost their firearms and firearms licences as a result, with reviews or proceedings reportedly under way in a further 122 cases.

A master roofer without a gun cabinet

According to BILD, those affected include Marcel Pries, a master roofer and passionate hobby hunter from Saxony-Anhalt. He is an AfD member and had to hand over seven firearms. The newspaper shows him in front of the empty gun cabinets in his basement and additionally reports on hunting licence revocations for some of the 17 individuals affected. The specific count of 17 hobby hunters and 122 ongoing cases, as well as the exact case-by-case allocation to firearms ownership cards and hunting licences, is so far solely documented through the BILDplus research and cannot be independently verified publicly.

The ruling from Magdeburg, precisely explained

The Higher Administrative Court did not create a new landmark ruling, but on 7 August 2026, in three proceedings (case numbers 3 L 44/25, 3 L 45/25 and 3 L 51/25), it made the rulings of the Magdeburg Administrative Court from March 2025 legally binding by rejecting the admission of appeal. Those rulings had already confirmed the revocation of firearms licences and the withdrawal of the firearms ownership card.

The legal basis is the statutory presumption under Section 5(2) No. 3 of the Weapons Act: anyone who supports or belongs to an anti-constitutional organisation is thereby generally presumed to be unreliable under firearms law; an additional firearms offence or concrete threat of violence is not required for this. The presumption can be rebutted in individual cases; however, the Higher Administrative Court did not consider this exception to apply in the three proceedings. A party ban is not a prerequisite for applying the presumption.

What matters here is the state-specific classification: the AfD state association of Saxony-Anhalt has been classified as a «confirmed right-wing extremist endeavour» since November 2023. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution had also classified the federal AfD in this way in May 2025. However, the Cologne Administrative Court prohibited the office from publicly using or enforcing this classification until the main proceedings are decided, by way of an interim injunction issued in February 2026. Nationwide, the AfD is therefore currently once again treated as a suspected case. This is irrelevant for the Saxony-Anhalt case, because the state's own independent classification applies here.

Firearms ownership card and hunting licence are two different things

The firearms ownership card is the firearms-law permit to possess certain firearms, while the hunting licence is a separate authorisation under hunting law. Revocation of the firearms ownership card can have consequences under hunting law, but this is not automatically identical to revocation of the hunting licence. The Higher Administrative Court proceedings demonstrably concerned firearms licences. BILD additionally reports on hunting licence revocations for some of the 17 individuals affected. The exact case-by-case allocation is public, but not verifiable.

Older, officially confirmed figures from a parliamentary inquiry in early 2025 show the scale: at that time, 74 AfD members in Saxony-Anhalt held a firearms ownership card, 25 of them as hunters and 49 as sport shooters, with a total of around 330 firearms. At that point, five revocation notices had been issued, one firearm had been voluntarily returned, and 51 further reviews were under way. The new figures of 17 affected hunters and 122 ongoing cases stem solely from the current BILD research and are significantly higher than this earlier state of affairs.

A nationwide patchwork

Practice in Germany is not uniform. The Gera Administrative Court ruled the opposite way in four cases on 9 February 2026: mere membership of the Thuringian AfD alone does not justify revocation of firearms licences. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, too, the state hunting association currently sees no need for action, because the state association there is not classified as confirmed extremist. The Federal Ministry of the Interior has so far held back from issuing a nationwide regulation, although individual state interior ministers have explicitly called for a uniform approach.

Why this should also concern Switzerland

In Switzerland too, firearms ownership is tied to statutory requirements. Depending on the weapon, a written contract, a firearms acquisition permit, or an exceptional authorisation is required. Among other things, the cantonal authorities check whether there are grounds for refusal. A general review of political convictions is not a customary criterion here.

How inconsistently Switzerland examines the firearms-law reliability of hobby hunters is already evident from documented misconduct by individual persons. The case from Saxony-Anhalt therefore raises a further question: do the authorities react consistently enough when there are concrete indications of a propensity for violence, extremist endeavours, or a risk to third parties?