On 26 April we commemorate the sixth anniversary of the mass shooting at the Johann Gutenberg high school in Erfurt, Germany, where 12 teachers, 2 students, a school secretary and a police officer lost their lives. A further 10 people were wounded. The 19-year old assailant, a former student at the school, then killed himself. He was armed with a Glock-17 handgun and also carried a Mossberg 590 pump-action shotgun which he did not use. Both weapons had been obtained legally, since the murderer was a gun club member.
After the shooting, state governments supported the federal government in passing a new law banning pump-action shotguns and raising the minimum age for ownership of sporting guns from 18 to 21 and for hunting weapons from 16 to 18. It also requires any prospective target shooter younger than 25 to have a doctor's certificate proving mental capacity to own weapons. A separate examination process was already in place for owners of hunting weapons. The new law came into effect in April 2003.

Six weeks after the massacre, students and teachers who survived the 1999 Columbine High School shooting came to Erfurt to pay their respects.


Links:

Slideshow from the tragedy
Website on German gun control
IANSA participants in Germany