French Surrender Firearms in Record Numbers During Government Crackdown

[mystery-ak]

French Surrender Firearms in Record Numbers During Government Crackdown

Simon Kent 1 Dec 2022

French gun owners are surrendering their weapons in record numbers at police collection points across the country as a round up of unlicensed firearms winds down.

France is keen to limit the number of illegally owned firearms – as many as six million, authorities estimate – and the Macron government is offering an amnesty in an effort to limit their distribution.

Rifles, handguns, ammunition, even knives and grenades, have been handed in at 300 collection points across the country since the start of the Ministry of Interior’s campaign on Nov. 25.

Those who bring in the weapons face no penalties and their offerings will be destroyed.

By Wednesday, Reuters reports 65,000 firearms of all types had been turned in, along with 1.6 million bullets and other projectiles.

“This campaign is here to help French people surrender these objects that are rather cumbersome for most,” police commandant Florence Gavello said at the collection point in Nice.

Other authorities shared that optimism of a national disarmament.

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https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/12/01/french-surrender-firearms-in-record-numbers-during-government-crackdown/

[mountaineer]

national disarmament

That always ends well. 

[Free Vulcan]

Well surrendering is second nature to the French, so...

[Texas Yellow Rose]

Have they forgotten so easily?   

[Wingnut]

Most of them have never been fired, and only dropped once.

[mountaineer]

There's a long history of hunting in France. I wonder if any hunters have surrendered their weapons.
France Leads Europe in Hunting, Newspaper Says.

[Kamaji]

Well, so far only about 65,000 firearms have been surrendered, out of a total French population of about 65 million, so that's not a huge haul.

[Smokin Joe]

Well, so far only about 65,000 firearms have been surrendered, out of a total French population of about 65 million, so that's not a huge haul.

Considering the number of firearms that must have been left on the battlefields of France during WWI and WWII, 65,000 unregistered arms just doesn't seem like very many. While I have little doubt the armies of both sides did their best to scrounge up all sorts of weapons and ordnance left in the wake of combat operations, I wonder how much ended up stuffed in haystacks and hidden in barns out in the countryside.

Put another way, had I such an opportunity, I know I would have had weapons of all types, from both sides, and kept my mouth shut about it, especially with the Soviets breathing down Europe's collective neck.

While many have characterized the French as 'surrender monkeys', that does great disservice to the 71% of French troops wounded (4.2 million) or killed (1.4 million) in WWI, and the 217,600 who died in WWII in France as it was overrun, not to mention the over 1 million dead in Indochina (military and civilian). French forces delayed the Nazis enough for Dunkirk to happen. Without that, WWII might have had a different outcome. YMMV

[Kamaji]

Considering the number of firearms that must have been left on the battlefields of France during WWI and WWII, 65,000 unregistered arms just doesn't seem like very many. While I have little doubt the armies of both sides did their best to scrounge up all sorts of weapons and ordnance left in the wake of combat operations, I wonder how much ended up stuffed in haystacks and hidden in barns out in the countryside.

Put another way, had I such an opportunity, I know I would have had weapons of all types, from both sides, and kept my mouth shut about it, especially with the Soviets breathing down Europe's collective neck.

While many have characterized the French as 'surrender monkeys', that does great disservice to the 71% of French troops wounded (4.2 million) or killed (1.4 million) in WWI, and the 217,600 who died in WWII in France as it was overrun, not to mention the over 1 million dead in Indochina (military and civilian). French forces delayed the Nazis enough for Dunkirk to happen. Without that, WWII might have had a different outcome. YMMV