krone.tv asks

Ban on weapons? “I feel safe with a knife”

(Bild: krone.tv, Krone KREATIV)

After seven femicides in the new year and a worrying increase in violent crimes and assaults with stabbing weapons, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner reacted promptly and called for a ban on weapons throughout the country. krone.tv asked around Vienna's Praterstern - a weapons ban zone has been in place here since 2019.

Erich Zankl is a pensioner on his way to Krems with his wife and is sympathetic: "I think it's good that there's a weapons ban here," says the 62-year-old. He is against knives and machetes, but has sympathy for pepper spray. Even with a nationwide ban on weapons, this ranged weapon for self-defense will not fall under the ban.

Erich Zankl: "Machete, knives have no place here."

(Bild: krone.tv)

"As a man, I've never had any problems here"
Friedrich Forster is often at Praterstern. He has never felt unsafe or even threatened here. "As a man, I've never had any problems here. Not even when there were a lot of alcoholics sitting around, I was even able to have a good conversation with them." But the 71-year-old still had a pocket knife in his pocket.

Student Eris Alinaj also has a knife with her: "To feel safe as a woman," says the 18-year-old. Electrician Harald Kronseder has less sympathy for carrying a blade: "What do you need it for? If something happens, there's the police". His wife disagrees: "I carried one once because my mom wanted me to when I was 18. But I never had to use it."