Germany to keep national record of weapons

Berlin, Nov 20 (IANS) The German government is all set to maintain a centralised weapons' register from next year onwards to enable authorities access information regarding weapons and their owners with the help of a central national database.

This will make it possible for police to establish whether weapons are present at the locations to which they have been deployed such as whether or not a gun has been registered in a house reported for domestic violence.

The move comes nearly four years after the tragedy of the Winnenden school shooting in Baden?Wurttemberg state which left 16 people dead, DAPD news agency reported.

According to the country's federal Interior Minister Hans?Peter Friedrich (Christian Social Union ? CSU), the country' new national weapons register is set to be launched Jan 1, 2013

The new register thereby makes a "considerable contribution to improving national security in Germany", he said.

According to president of the federal criminal police office, Jorg Ziercke, the introduction of the register is the fulfilment of a long?standing request made by German security authorities for a central database.

At times it took months to get a response from local registration office, Ziercke said, adding that the integrated electronic database would make investigations considerably faster and easier.