I’m going to throw a guess out there and say “only authorized citizens could buy a commercial rifle or pistol.”. Probably government officials, etc. Finally, whole towns were militarized due to the push of Allied forces and that was the reason for whole towns to be disarmed.
Am I even close? Those were my best guesses anyway.
Not really, again, there is a myth that Germany had draconian gun control, and people weren't allowed to have guns, which is just fallacy, in fact the German Weapons Act of 1938 actually loosened controls imposed during the Weimar era...
"The 1938 German Weapons Act, the precursor of the current weapons law, superseded the 1928 law. As under the 1928 law, citizens were required to have a permit to carry a firearm and a separate permit to acquire a firearm. But under the new law:
Gun restriction laws applied only to handguns, not to long guns or ammunition. The 1938 revisions completely deregulated the acquisition and transfer of rifles and shotguns, and the possession of ammunition.[8]
The legal age at which guns could be purchased was lowered from 20 to 18.[9][10]
Permits were valid for three years, rather than one year.[9]
Holders of annual hunting permits, government workers, and NSDAP (the National Socialist German Workers' Party) members were no longer subject to gun ownership restrictions. Prior to the 1938 law, only officials of the central government, the states, and employees of the German Reichsbahn Railways were exempted.[8]
Manufacture of arms and ammunition continued to require a permit, with the proviso that such permits would no longer be issued to any company even partly owned by Jews; Jews could not manufacture or deal in firearms or ammunition.[8]
Under both the 1928 and 1938 acts, gun manufacturers and dealers were required to maintain records about purchasers of guns, with serial numbers. These records were to be delivered to a police authority for inspection at the end of each year.
The 1938 Regulations Against Jews' Possession of Weapons, which came into force the day after Kristallnacht,[11][12] effectively deprived all Jews living under the Third Reich within the occupied Sudetenland and Austria of the right to possess any form of weapons, including truncheons, knives, firearms and ammunition. Exceptions were made for Jews and Poles who were foreign nationals under §3 of the act. [13][14] Before that, some police forces used the pre-existing "trustworthiness" clause to disarm Jews on the basis that "the Jewish population 'cannot be regarded as trustworthy'".[8]
Gun laws in Nazi Germany have been the subject of debate in the United States over gun regulations, with various opponents of gun regulation arguing that gun regulations in Nazi Germany helped the Nazis to cement power or to implement the Holocaust. Fact-checkers have described these claims or theories as "false" or "debunked".[15][16][17][10] While Jews were subject to having their guns seized, the gun registry was so incomplete that many Jews retained their guns.[16] On the whole, gun laws were actually made less stringent for German citizens who were loyal to Nazi rule.[10][15] PolitiFact also writes, "a lack of guns was not the issue" in the rise of the Nazis and the Holocaust.[15]
Current laws[edit]"
So, it seems it would be pretty easy for most Germans to buy rifles...thus the curiousity about how and where these commercials were sold....
Actually, read through that, and its somewhat similar to what we have in place now...
