His latest acquisition: a 12-gauge shotgun. His “little favorite“: an HK P30 SK subcompact pistol. From the Winchester carbine to the Glock 17, the pistol “most common in police and shooting ranges“, his apartment contains a veritable arsenal, which he spreads out on his bed. A dozen firearms, category C (rifles and long weapons authorized without quantity limit for holders of a shooting license) and B ( subject to authorization from the prefecture for five years, their quantity is limited to 12), all legal and declared. What do they symbolize for him?Freedom“, Where “rather confidence: if the state has confidence in its citizens, it should allow them the right to have arms, he exposes, because if citizens have confidence in the state, everything should be fine“.
A student in an engineering school, this 22-year-old young man has been enrolled in a shooting club for three years. But it is not the practice of sport that interests him: he campaigns for the restoration of the carrying of arms as citizens. “What I would like is to be able, me, legally, with a license, to carry my firearm [dans la rue]he explains. Because I tell myself that the day my life is in danger, I will be able to defend myself.“
A permanently loaded pistol at the foot of his bed
At home, if he always keeps a loaded gun in a chest at the foot of his bed, it’s mainly to reassure himself…”in case“.”If only if, outside, something is happening downstairs. For example, we had attacks in Austria, we saw people who were filming the terrorists from their balcony, I prefer to replace my telephone with a firearm. It would have made it possible, surely, to save a lot of lives, if someone had been able to intervene almost immediately, where the police, it will always take 10, 20, 30 minutes“, does he think.
Even though he otherwise says do “rather trust“to the police, this young man would be ready to intervene in his place… But in France, self-defense is strictly regulated by law: the response to an attack must be simultaneous, necessary, voluntary and proportional.
Excerpt from “La France desarmes”, a report to see in “Special Envoy” on June 2, 2022.
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