Reclassification of firearm possession to carrying under the doctrine of joint offense

The German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) dismissed the defendant's revision as unfounded, with the exception of correcting the legal characterization of the offense: the defendant is deemed guilty of unlawfully carrying a firearm rather than unlawfully possessing one, pursuant to a joint act (Tateinheit), while the underlying Landgericht Bremen judgment of July 4, 2023, otherwise remains in force. The defendant, who appealed the lower court’s conviction on the basis of legal error, did not prevail on the merits but had the charge reclassified to align with the General Federal Prosecutor’s application; the court found no other legal errors to the defendant’s detriment and ordered the defendant to bear the costs of the appeal and necessary expenses incurred by the auxiliary plaintiff during the revision proceedings. The decisive legal basis involves the distinction between unlawful possession and unlawful carrying of firearms under German criminal law, specifically applying the doctrine of Tateinheit (joint offense) to correctly classify the conduct within the statutory framework.