“I had this rifle for almost 40 years.
It never came out of its packaging but I didn't know how to get rid of it”, says an 80-year-old pensioner “relieved” to give up this weapon which had become far too cumbersome.
This Friday began in Charente-Maritime, as elsewhere in France, a national operation to abandon found or inherited weapons.
Read alsoHow to get rid of the weapons in your possession?
Until December 2, everyone will have the opportunity to hand over a rifle, rifle or handgun to the police and gendarmes.
"It's free and without administrative formalities", assures Nicolas Basselier, the prefect of Charente-Maritime where three "armodromes" will operate for eight days "continuously, weekends included" in Rochefort, Jonzac and Saint-Jean-d 'Angely.
Don't come with a shell!
Nearly 2 million French people possess "untitled" weapons, says the Ministry of the Interior, which intends to encourage them to empty their attics without any other form of trial.
They will actually have two options: to abandon their weapons – which will be destroyed in the process – or to declare them to better keep them legally.
“In normal times”, up to 650 weapons are abandoned each year in Charente-Maritime, a department marked by intense fighting between 1944 and 1945, and frequented by more than 16,000 hunters.
This Friday, in Rochefort, more than sixty weapons had already been transferred to the police, in less than an hour.
The prefecture, on the other hand, calls on individuals not to move into an “armodrome” with war machines – shells, grenades or explosives.
Deminers will go to the homes of individuals, by appointment.