In order to get a German gun licence you must:
be a memeber of a shooting club for atleast a year, and shoot on a regular basis (log kept)
pass a firearms safety and law test
pass a background check
Pay some cash (gun clubs are not cheap)
THen you apply to the city you are in; If approved, six weeks later you can get your licence.
Once you have your licence, you can purchase bolt action rifles whenever you want; Anything else you must get permission. Basically you have to get a permission ship (you have to show a need for it, not as hard as it sounds)for a type of gun and its caliber.
Then, you can buy your gun. It is registered of course. And, because of the small market, dealers have to charge allot. You wont find dealers selling $300 AKs. For example: $800 AKs, $2500 HK MP5 clones, etc.
They just changed the laws regarding military style firearms; Before anything that looked like a military gun was not allowed. Didnt matter if it was real, or carved from wood. Now military style guns are allowed. But I am heard and read conflicting stuff about what is. They are still working out the details I guess.
I have heard that folding stocks, flash hiders, high caps etc are ok now. But I still have yet to see any guns for sale with these.
And Europe is not as bad for gun laws as people think. Its a pain to get the licence, but when you do you can buy cool stuff. Finland and Norway you can own machine guns, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, and others you can own semi auto assault rifles. Ireland you can own shotguns and .22s. Some places even allow full autos converted to semi.