EA week after the knife attack in a snack bar on Münchener Strasse, it is still unclear when the police-planned gun ban zone in Frankfurt’s Bahnhofsviertel can be implemented. The police are still sticking to their plans to set up an area in the streets around Frankfurt’s main train station where people can be specifically checked for weapons.
Police President Stefan Müller justified the project by saying that experience had shown “that weapons or dangerous objects that are carried along are also used in the event of a conflict”. Every dangerous object seized early means “immediate victim protection”. In the case of attacks with knives in particular, “only centimeters and thus chance decide between life and death”.
Violations are to be punished with fines
Müller also hopes that there will be a deterrent effect if violations of the ban are punished with fines in the future. However, it is still uncertain to what extent the coalition will support the demands of the police. As security department head Annette Rinn (FDP) said on request, the plans of the police headquarters are currently being examined in detail.
She is still in talks with the factions and the police. She herself is not fundamentally averse to a gun ban zone. According to reports, one of the issues at stake is how to deal with pepper spray that women carry in their handbags to protect themselves.
So far, the question has not been answered as to whether such an “animal repellent spray” also falls under the ban. In all likelihood, should the no-guns zone come about, there will initially be a pilot project to evaluate which weapons and how many are seized during checks. As the police announced a few weeks ago, the Bureau has already collected figures and data for the station area.
According to the police, the requirements for such a project according to Section 42 of the Weapons Act are met. According to the police headquarters, the gun ban zone would be created by a legal and hazard prevention ordinance from the city – provided the magistrate and city council agree.
