"
I will very soon propose to ban the acquisition and possession of transformed weapons of war which are in circulation today
", declared Gérald Darmanin Thursday, July 22 during a speech delivered at the Ambert gendarmerie, to which attached were the three soldiers killed on December 22 in Saint-Just by a man, Frederik Limol, who was heavily armed.
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French legislation concerning the possession of firearms is already very restrictive, one of the strictest in Europe. Currently, what does or does not allow the law?
Let us first remember that detention is very different from carrying firearms.
The carrying of weapons is strictly reserved for members of administrations for professional use.
There are nevertheless some very rare exemptions which concern threatened persons or personalities, on exceptional decisions of the administration.
The possession of firearms, on the other hand, is well defined by law.
It concerns sports shooters, hunters and also certain endangered people.
The weapon must then be kept in a safe, with the ammunition placed aside.
Transport is only authorized between the home and the place of use.
Four categories of weapons
Weapons - and among them firearms - are classified in France by categories from A to D. These four groups will depend on the possibility or not of owning a weapon.
"
The criterion of these categories is not the dangerousness but the mode of operation and the caliber
", remarks Laurent-Franck Lienard, criminal lawyer, specialist in the law of the weapons.
The first (category A) contains automatic weapons of war (firing by bursts) or rocket launchers for example.
They are prohibited in France for individuals.
Category B includes handguns (pistols, revolvers etc.), long guns (semi-automatic rifles), electric impulse or tear gas bombs. They require authorization from the prefecture to be purchased. This authorization, issued in the context of sport shooting, requires 6 months of training in a shooting range and will be valid for a period of 5 years. A list of offenses automatically makes this authorization impossible. A criminal record check is therefore carried out, but only every five years, when the authorization is issued by the prefecture and when it is renewed. “
We should make this annual check
, pleads Laurent-Franck Lienard,
instead of expanding an already extremely long list of offenses.
», As Gerald Darmanin plans to do.
It should be noted that a prefect can prohibit at any time by special decision and revoke an authorization.
Category C includes, in particular, semi-automatic long guns or compressed air guns.
It is possible to buy them freely for sports shooters, hunters or collectors, but it is compulsory to declare them to the prefecture.
The administration can obviously oppose the possession of the weapon.
In this case, the applicant is notified that he must relinquish it, then must justify it.
If he does not do so within three months "
the police services intervene
", explains Laurent-Franck Lienard.
Finally, category D weapons are generally sold over the counter, although it is prohibited for minors.
These are, for example, certain tear gas bombs or certain electric pulse weapons, the list of which can be found on the service-public site.
Weapons of war transformed
Where are these “
transformed weapons of war
” currently in the minister's viewfinder?
"
These weapons are in reality category B, semi-automatic, or category C weapons, with manual repetition, except that they have the allure and appearance of automatic weapons of war
", explains
Yves Gollety
to
Figaro
. , president of the national union of gunsmiths.
Read also: Dijon, Nice ... Faced with weapons of war, do the police have the means to intervene?
The transformed weapons of war do not therefore necessarily correspond to a particular category.
They are also sometimes outclassed according to the complex criteria of the categorization.
“
Even with manual repetition, certain weapons can be upgraded to category B (or even to A) according to various criteria: particular caliber (7.62 mm for the Kalashnikov for example), total length or barrel length too short, magazine capacity too high
”, specifies for
Le Figaro
Jeanne Ciuffa, lawyer at the bar of Lyon.
Old weapons
What about culverins, arquebuses, muskets and other ancient firearms?
Regarding these weapons, those whose model is prior to 1900, it is also necessary to refer to the corresponding categories.
"
They are generally classified in category D, except for a list of weapons upgraded to A, B or C by decree, given their dangerousness,
" notes Jeanne Ciuffa.
Small clarification for the French who would have found at the bottom of an attic an old Ruby from the Great War or a Browning 10/22 from the Second World War: whether it was designed in 1901 or in 2021, a handgun remains classified in category B (or sometimes even upgraded to A), unless it is neutralized.
Currently, nearly five million French people own one or more firearms, mainly sport shooters or hunters.
