The state of the law for the possession and carrying of weapons in France is the question of the day with Laurent Franck Liénard, lawyer at the Paris bar, specialist in arms legislation.
franceinfo: Who has the right to carry a weapon today in France?
Laurent Franck Lienard : There are very few people who are authorized to bear arms, they are the forces of order, and it is necessary to distinguish on duty and off duty. In service, they are the forces of order in general, municipal police, environmental police, country guards, Vigipirate soldiers. And the threatened people, who can carry a weapon on a daily basis…
Who are these people ?
People who have very serious and very specific threats to their physical integrity and who have decided not to take bodyguards.
Judges too?
Yes, they have the right to bear arms. There are very few magistrates who carry weapons, but some counter-terrorism judges are armed.
And there are security guards…
Yes, this is the great novelty of 2017. We created armed security guards. They benefit from special training and special approval. There are two types of armed security guards, those who are assigned to monitor certain sites, such as certain amusement parks, and close security guards, bodyguards.
Can an assault rifle be owned by an individual in France?
In France, individuals can hold weapons of the assault rifle type, but which do not fire in bursts, these are semi-automatic rifles, calibers of war, but firing piecemeal. Sport shooters can hold this type of weapon. These are category B weapons. They benefit from detention permits.
They can’t wear them, but they can carry them to the shooting range and they can keep them in their homes, in chests. The conditions are draconian, you need six months in a shooting club, you need a clean criminal record, there is a morality investigation carried out by the police.
For shotguns, what are the regulations?
Hunters are authorized to acquire hunting weapons and carry them in hunting actions or transport them for their hunting actions. When they buy them, they make the declaration to the prefecture, which will carry out a risk assessment, a police investigation, a morality investigation, and if we see that there has been in the past, even ten years before, intentional violence, driving under the influence of alcohol, things like that, that’s enough to proceed with the divestment of the weapon.