German citizens could readily acquire rifles and shotguns, as well as ammunition for themselves, and could with a permit acquire pistols. This flies in the face of the traditional propaganda promoted by some American gun rights activists, who focus on the disarming of the Jews to suggest that Hitler could have only risen to power because the German population was disarmed. Nothing could be further from the truth, as Hitler actually relaxed certain gun laws for Germans.

A slightly biased, but factually correct Salon article and a more scholarly dissertation explain this better.

The Weimar Republic disarmed the German populace in 1919. By 1938, Hitler had relaxed the laws concerning rifles and shotguns to allow private (German) citizens to own them. One could at least in theory, and likely in practice with good connections acquire a permit to own and carry a pistol. Again, Jews and other "undesirable" classes were denied arms.