INTERVIEW: The GUN CULTURE is 10 years old

Happy birthday, dear WAFFENKULTUR. It's just ten years old. And regularly accompanies us with meaningful texts and good information. We wanted to know from editor Henning Hoffmann how it all started, what WAFFENKULTUR can do, and what's next.

SPARTANAT: Henning Hoffmann, congratulations on the Tenth! Above are the first and the current covers. How did WAFFENKULTUR come about?

Just over ten years ago, a close friend from Switzerland approached me and suggested that I should publish a newsletter that I regularly send to shooting course participants of Akademie 0/500®. Everyone was doing it back then: Tom Givens from Rangemaster, James Yeager, Gabe Suarez of course, and also Paul Howe.

Our idea was, in contrast to the American solution, that if we were going to do something like this, we would do it properly: we would create a full-fledged magazine as a .pdf and enable free download for everyone; not just for participants. The effort is the same after all.

What developed from this quickly exceeded all expectations.

SPARTANAT: Ten years and still going strong: What makes the program of WAFFENKULTUR so necessary?

Superstition about equipment, lack of concept, and indoctrination with half-knowledge are as characteristic of German gun owners as they are for hardly any other scene. This is further reinforced by test reports in so-called specialist magazines that are completely interchangeable in their randomness and irrelevance. "Ten bolt-action rifles in the test"; "Twelve revolvers in the test"; "15 polymer pistols in the test"; "But now: Exclusive test!" With something like this, you only insult the intelligence of your readership. The informational value for the reader is zero. It often results in the purchase of an overpriced, large, silver sport pistol, the practical value of which is also zero.

On the other hand, WAFFENKULTUR provides the reader with meaningful equipment advice. Test products are purchased, and we only present what has proven itself in the test: clothing, accessories, or weapons that have to withstand over 15,000 shots in long-term testing

SPARTANAT: A retrospective always means taking stock, even if the baby is so young. What is the balance of "Waffenkultur"? 

There is no balance. Taking stock would mean living in the past. However, only the present counts. Looking back would also mean fooling oneself into thinking that something special had been achieved. We just keep going. The most important issue is the next one. Providing the reader with new insights, preventing them from making a bad purchase, or helping them improve through a training tip is more important than "balance".

As always free, but never in vain: free download directly from www.waffenkultur.com