Personal protection in Germany?

[shavis]

My wife & I will be travelling to Germany later this year & I don't believe there is a reciprocity agreement with Texas. (doh...) I can't find info on knife legality or pepper spray. I don't want any issues entering/exiting customs or the local LEO.

Anyone have any knowledge on this?

Thanks!
Scott

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[wmhawth]

Duisburg posts from Germany. Perhaps he will respond to your post. He could probably fill you in.

[irish_ironsight]

Shavis..

Greetings from Ireland, not Germany but it's all Europe and the rules all suck ! ! !
I lived there for 6 years.

In order to legally possess a firearm in Germany you would need to apply for a German Weapons Possession card, this is NOT a carry permit of any sort, it only allows you to own a firearm, you will not be permitted to carry the weapon on your person.

Anyway, most of the public here in Europe have been disarmed by our assorted Governments, so there cant be any serious crime can there ?

Enjoy the vacation,

[walvord]

Fuhgitaboutit and enjoy the vacation. They're all disarmed over there anyway so nothing bad can happen to you in their utopian society.

[allenruger]

In my opinion, it's not even worth looking into as things are so different there and you sure don't want to get caught up in a technical loophole. Go and enjoy yourself! (and bring us all back gifts)

[Rock and Glock]

Having spent some time in Germany last summer, you should consider a folding knife for carry. No guns.

Knives are generally legal, even automatic openers, however, I am not an expert by any means. You need to check the rules there carefully. The quality knife stores can be good sources of information on legality, but listen carefully and make sure they are certain of what they tell you. The tourist shops will not be good sources of info generally.

I carried a Boker automatic and a Coldsteel cane all over Germany and nobody looked twice at me.

Boker: Böker - Your Knife Made In Solingen

Coldsteel: CITY STICK

I carried the "City Slicker" with the stainless head.

You might get in museums faster with a cane too........LOL

[shavis]

I have no intention of even thinking of taking a firearm over. I do plan on testing some of the beer while we are there !!

That last post (thanks R&G!)gave me clarity. This gives me a great opportunity to add to my knife collection. I'm looking forward to this already!

[QKShooter]

Buy a walking stick over there. A good heavy one.

[88m]

Lived over there for 5 years in the early and mid 90s. I kept a couple good knives on me but never needed them for self defense.

To be honest I felt safer over there than I do here in the states. now keep in mind this was the west and south parts of Germany going north and east it can be a different story.

[Rock and Glock]

BTW....TSA did not blink when I carried the Coldsteel cane through security. Of course, I fit the profile and have a slight limp and some silver hair..........

[FLSig]

Another option is to carry one of the small tactical lights with a strobe effect. There was a post quite a while back on John Farnham's quips about those being useful to disorient a BG long enough to turn the tables or get away from the situation with you and yours. And you can carry those right through TSA checkpoints without a second thought.

FLSig

[biker09]

Go over there and have a great time. If you find yourself ina problem, offer them a Weitzen Beer. That should take care of the problem.

[Geds]

Get yourself and your wife a giant souvenir beer Stien....they make great clubs.

[kante]

Being german, i can tell you a little bit about german gun control/weapon control:

All you are allowed to carry is a cane. Get a big walking stick. Honestly, that is about the only thing that you are allowed to carry.

Guns - forget about it (as someone mentioned earlier: You need a weapons possessions card and have to pass extensive background checks and need a psychatrists statement to proof that you are not about to shoot someone (i am not kidding!) to just own a weapon).
Knives - i am not sure about the current laws, but it's illegal to carry any type of "butterfly" kind of knives and folding knives above a certain size. If they catch you with anything bigger than a swiss army knife, it would still be legal i think, but you still would have a lot of explaining to do.
Pepperspray - illegal. Period
Taser - Illegal.

The only guns that they allow are special blank cartridge guns. Those are actually looking like the real deal, but they are made of some zinc-alloy-stuff and pretty much designed to explode in your hand if you try to fire a real bullet. All they do is creating a nice little "bang" which works perfectly to scare bad guys away (not!). A walking stick is actually more effective than those fakeguns. At least you can beat the crap out of a bad guy instead of just creating noise!

Oh, and in case you need to defend yourself: It's actually the law that you have to use the least amount of force. If someone is holding you up with a gun: Break his skull with your cane! If someone is holding you up with a knife: Run away, they expect you to be faster than the criminal. You are only allowed to use force if he starts running behind you!

There is a reason why i moved to the states ;)
(Well, ok, i miss the beer though ;))

Have fun there!
Mike

[EW3]

Get one of these; they weigh about 4 pounds and will really leave a mark if a BG messes with you.

Plus, you'll blend right in, LOL