No Nunchuks, Please

The law is based on federal legislation, passed earlier this year, allowing local states to prohibit items that can be used to endanger public safety -- including fake guns. Hamburg took the lead in pushing for such legislation and is the first state within Germany to enact a prohibition on the local level.

The ban covers air rifles, billy clubs, brass knuckles, baseball bats, pepper spray and most forms of mace. Carrying any of those items in the neighborhoods affected by the law can be punished with a fine of up to 10,000 euros ($14,700).

"This is a further element promoting the safety of people in our city," Hamburg's interior minister, Udo Nagel, told the AP news agency. "By changing the laws we finally have the possibility of reigning in violence in areas that are especially at risk."

Criminal gangs are active on the Reeperbahn, and knife fights and attacks with dangerous items occur with relative frequency.

Too little or waste of time?

Hamburg's governing conservatives and police hope the bans will reduce violent crime in troubled neighborhoods. But not everyone likes the prohibition in its current form.

Green Party parliamentary and interior affairs experts Antje Möller has called for the ban to be extended to the entire city. She also says that something should be done about shops that sell the items concerned -- of which there are a number on and near the Reeperbahn.

"It can't be the case that you're not allowed to carry weapons, but trading in them is publicly accepted," Möller told the German public broadcaster NDR.

Others question whether the ban will have any practical affect.

"Anyone serious bent on robbing, raping or murdering others isn't interested in legislation -- and certainly not in weapons legislation," wrote one blogger on the German Internet news site Shortnews.

It will take time to see if the weapons ban succeeds in reducing crime in Hamburg. In the meantime, anyone wanting a pick up game of baseball in the city should probably steer clear of the Reeperbahn.