Speaking to daily newspaper Rheinische Post on Friday, Zypries said the country’s shooting clubs were obliged to ensure there were proper checks of gun owners.

“It has to be clear that the storage regulations in the weapons law must be adhered to,” she told the paper.

Police have reported that Tim Kretschmer, the teenage gunman who murdered 15 people this week, took a legally-owned pistol from his father’s bedroom. The father had an arsenal of other firearms and more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition locked up in a safe for weapons.

Zypries rejected a ban on keeping firearms at home, however. “We thoroughly debated after [another school massacre in] Erfurt in 2002 whether it was better to keep guns at a club house or at home,” she said.

Most politicians have also rejected early calls to tighten Germany’s weapon laws in the wake of the latest bloodbath. But some are now demanding a ban on the type of violent video games found on Kretschmer’s computer by police.

Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said the southern German state would make a new effort to remove shooter games like the popular title “Counter-Strike” from sale.

“I’m no opponent of video games, but the most brutal killer games are totally unacceptable and should be banned,” Herrmann told daily paper Münchner Merkur. “We finally have to wake up and find the courage to ban the most brutal games. It’s no longer a question of artistic freedom.”