french gun laws

[mekender]

in light of the "rioting youths" in france, i just read an interesting article on french gun laws... not a bad read at all...

interesting part is that permitted owners are restricted to only having 7 centerfire weapons, and only 1,000 rounds for each weapon per year...

the author correctly notes that the legal gun owners arent the ones committing crimes

http://www.ssaa.org.au/newssaa/political archive/legislativereports/aug97.htm

 

[Novus Collectus]

interesting part is that permitted owners are restricted to only having 7 centerfire weapons, and only 1,000 rounds for each weapon per year...

For the First and Fourth category guns, not all centerfire guns.

According to the article:

Guns of the classes still to be described, however, five, six, seven and eight, may be bought and owned in any number by the private citizen, along with the ammunition. No firearms certificates are needed, although the buyer's name and address are registered for the fifth and seventh categories. Break-action shotguns need not be declared to the authorities at all.

The fifth category is the hunting arms class. It includes shotguns, riot guns with a five-shot limit, semi-automatic shotguns with a three-round capacity, repeating rifles in non-military calibre and with a magazine capacity of no more than ten shots, and also semi-automatic rifles in non-military calibre with a capacity of no more than three shots and with no removable magazine. Total length of this class must be over 80cm and barrel length must be more than 45cm.

 

[yesit'sloaded]

There is a French AR15 guy that is on here that has a very nice collection. I'm sure he would be happy to answer any questions on guns in France.

 

[mekender]

my read on that is that any rifle with a "military caliber" is a no no for most people... which would rule out 90% of the weapons commonly found in the US....

 

[crashm1]

Sounds like a guy would need to buy his AR in .240 or .260 or 6.8 Grendel and his 1911s in .38 super or join a shooting club. Not as good as here but it sounds light years better than England or Australia.

 

[MD_Willington]

frenchbushmaster

The members name is frenchbushmaster...

read this thread

Gun ownership in France -- still active
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=297651

 

[Novus Collectus]

my read on that is that any rifle with a "military caliber" is a no no for most people... which would rule out 90% of the weapons commonly found in the US....

From what I understand, rifles in military caliber just need a firearms certificate to own in France and any non-criminal can own them.

The 1st category

Chapter 1 :
It’s all semi-automatique handgun weapons over 7.65 mm. caliber.

Chapter 2 :
For the rifle and carbines in military caliber (semi-automatique or bolt action carbines and rifles). A military cliber is a caliber used in regular army (5.56 nato, 7.62x51, 7.62x39, .50 BMG, etc..)

The 4th category is a bit more complex.

Chapter 1 :
It’s for all revolver with central primer cartridge (38 spe, 44 mag, 357 mag, 45 LC, etc.) and the semi-automatique handgun in caliber 7.65 or less big like the 6.25mm using central pimer and with barrel under 110 mm lenght.

Chapter 2 :
For all semi-automatique handgun, rifles and carbines and revolver using rimfire ammo (22 LR, etc.).

chapter 5 :
For semi-automatique rifles in civilian caliber. Like the AR15 in .222 remington.

1st and 4th categories weapons could only be buy by a shooter member of a shooting club over 21 years old after 6 months of shooting and with an authorization delivered by authorities. Authorization you have to confirm every 3 years.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=297651&highlight=france

 

[jr_roosa]

France is a pretty funny place when you get right down to it.

It's very hard to describe their politics in the terms we use for ours.

They are very liberal in some ways, but their distrust of government rivals ours sometimes.

-J.

 

[Prince Yamato]

Sounds like a guy would need to buy his AR in .240 or .260 or 6.8 Grendel and his 1911s in .38 super or join a shooting club

or just get his AR in .222, which fits in all the .223 magazines . Actually, as I recall from the French Gun Laws thread, you COULD get .223 ARs, they were just more of a hassle.

European gun laws are funny. In some ways, they are MUCH more relaxed than ours- basically once you get your gun, you can do what you want with it (SBR, etc.)- You can own new full autos. A MG receiver with the MG guts replaced with semi-auto guts is considered semi-auto.

I think the US and France should sit down and have a meeting where we exchange the good parts of our firearms laws- French get CCW and NICS, we get full-autos and SBRs, no restrictions.

 

[joffe]

It's because here, the anti-gunners don't need to dance around the issue. Self-defense is a huge no-no here, with few exceptional countries. In the U.S., the right to defend your life and those you love is highly cherished, and thus the anti-gunners need to dance around the issue by writing up nonsensical legislation like the 'assault weapons ban' to mellow public opinion. Over here they just skipped the meat and headed straight for the bone.