German Interior Minister vows to toughen gun laws after alleged coup plot – POLITICO

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser says the country’s gun laws need to be tightened after police foiled a suspected coup attempt by a far-right group last week .

They “are not harmless lunatics but suspected terrorists who are currently in custody,” Faeser said in an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper published on Sunday.

Police on Wednesday arrested 25 people suspected of plotting to overthrow the government. Those arrested belonged to a “terrorist organization” which was prepared to commit acts of violence to achieve its goals, the German public prosecutor said.

Authorities must “exert maximum pressure” to withdraw their weapons, Faeser said, as quoted by Bild.

She said the German government would “soon be further tightening gun laws,” according to the report.

The plotters include members of the extremist Reichsburger (Reich Citizens), which refuses to recognize the modern German state and aims to replace it with a new authoritarian system.