Why Gun Regulations in France Differ Significantly From the US
By Lucas Eaves on 12/19/2012 in gun control, guns, regulation, Violence with 11 CommentsRead Time: 3 - 4 minutes
Credit: DNA
In the aftermath of the Newtown shooting, every newspaper has been highlighting the differences between the United States and the rest of the world in terms of mass shootings or the number of gun related deaths.
However, numbers alone do not really explain why France and other European countries have chosen a gun-free path. Gun regulations in France are a result of some historical instances in which gun policy change seemed necessary to the French government.
From the French point of view, this shooting is just another example of the United States’ gun addiction. This perception began, and was perpetuated, after the documentary Bowling From Columbine was praised at the Festival de Cannes, the French equivalent of the Oscars, in 2002.
In France, the only reasonable answer to gun violence is to ban the weapons all together. Moreover, there is a generalized lack of understanding as to why gun reforms are not promoted in the United States.
After spending a year in the United States, I have become accustomed to the American attachment to the constitution, especially the Second Amendment. The bottom line seems to be that in France you are raised to believe that guns are bad in the same way that in America guns are a normalized part of life.
How did two countries, the modern births of which share many commonalities, grow so far apart in some ideological aspects?
As in the United States, during the time of the French Revolution, the right to bear arms was also consecrated in revolutionary laws and remained an important right for citizens throughout the 19th century.
France, however, underwent a major shift in its regulation of weapons in 1939. The French government worried that tough living conditions during the upcoming war with Germany could lead to revolts and unrest similar to those experienced by Germany and Russia during World War I.
The government thus passed a law that would ban most guns. Moreover, when the Germans invaded France in 1940, another decree required every Frenchman to hand over his weapons.
This ban, justified by historical reasons, remained enforced after the war and has been the backbone of French firearm regulation ever since. In today’s legislation, the only weapons easy to purchase are hunting rifles, which has remained a French pastime.
The purchase of any type of military and civil firearm is only permitted in shooting sports for which a license is required. To obtain the licence, a year long process is required, including a 6 month membership at a shooting club and background check by the police. This license needs to be renewed every three years.
Thus, for the last 73 years, weapons, except hunting rifles, have been banned for most Frenchmen. Promoting a gun-free environment has become the country’s answer to preventing mass shootings.
France, like many other countries around the world, have shifted away from the gun culture for specific historical reasons. The United States has not yet had such a profound historical moment. Will the Newtown shooting be the start of a change?
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11 Comments
Shawn M. Griffiths
12.19.2012
@shawntx
I think this is a very good examination of how our countries differ. Everyone talks about the fact that gun policy in the US is so much different from other countries and how these other countries have significantly less gun deaths a year than the US, but we don’t really get into why the regulations are different. This provides a good historical perspective on the matter.
Emma Goda
12.19.2012
@emmagoda
Great article about how different our countries are in regards to guns. I love that it is a year long process to get a gun in France and is not an easy process.
Blake Bunch
12.19.2012
@blakebunch
Great parallel between gun use and our respective revolutions. The legislation we see today is greatly a result of our revolutionary character, and is definitely outdated. Though Americans are very attached to their guns, this polarizing issue should ultimately see some change adopted.
Jane Susskind
12.19.2012
@jsusskind
Great article Lucas. The ease at which Americans can get guns has proven to be dangerous time and time again. Those defending the second amendment should look to comparisons to better guide their arguments, and maybe a more strict process should be in place to obtain a gun.
Roger Ford
12.19.2012
@roger_ford
Although I can imagine that the laws in France were extremely unpopular in 1939, to the point that many must have questioned the patriotic intent behind them, their legacy seems on much more solid ground. As someone who took the National Rifle Association’s safe hunting course some 49 years ago in junior high school, I still think it was a good thing. Our district was located in prime Pennsylvania hunting lands. Although I cannot possibly say that the course alone saved lives, it must have helped. My class graduated from high school with no fatalities from hunting. Sadly, however, the NRA has changed its focus and its attitudes, as far as I can tell. The group that taught me responsibility with guns now promulgates irresponsibility with much more deadly weapons than we contemplated using as hunters. The PR that the second amendment supports such activities seems a hoax to me. How many people who stash guns and ammunition in their houses could possibly form a standing militia? What is the National Guard for? How will a house full of guns stave off anthrax or a dirty bomb? They are more likely to give rise to thoughtless violence because of their availability.
Let’s face it. The only big boy’s toy involved here is money. And money corrupts, or at least that is my opinion.
Eric
12.26.2012
Is it REALLY a surprise that the NRA’s focus shifted from promoting marksmanship and safety to opposing any new gun legislation?
Really?
“Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal.”
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, December 1993
“Gun registration is not enough.”
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno on “Good Morning America” 12/10/93
“We’re going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily, given political
realities, going to be very modest. Our ultimate goal, total control of handguns in the United
States, is going to take time. The first problem is to slow down the increasing number of handguns in this country. The second problem is to get handguns registered, and the final problem is to make the possession of all handguns, and all handgun ammunition illegal.”
Nelson T. Shields of Hangun Control, Inc. as quoted in `New Yorker’ magazine July
26, 1976. Page 53
“Our goal is to not allow anybody to buy a handgun. In the meantime, we think there ought to be strict licensing and regulation. Ultimately, that may mean it would require court approval to buy a handgun.”
President of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence Michael K. Beard, Washington Times
12/6/93 p.A1
I don’t care about crime, I just want to get the guns.”
Senator Howard Metzenbaum, 1994
“We’re here to tell the NRA their nightmare is true…”
U.S. Representative Charles Schumer, quoted on NBC, 11/30/93
“My bill … establishes a 6-month grace period for the turning in of all handguns.”
U.S. Representative Major Owens, Congressional Record, 11/10/93
“I don’t believe gun owners have rights.”
Sarah Brady, Hearst Newspapers Special Report “Handguns in America”, October
1997
“We must get rid of all the guns.”
Sarah Brady, speaking on behalf of HCI with Sheriff Jay Printz & others on “The Phil
Donahue Show” September 1994
“The House passage of our bill is a victory for this country! Common sense wins out. I’m just so thrilled and excited. The sale of guns must stop. Halfway measures are not enough.”
Sarah Brady 7/1/88
“The Brady Bill is the minimum step Congress should take…we need much stricter gun
control, and eventually should bar the ownership of handguns, except in a few cases.”
U.S. Representative William Clay, quoted in the St. Louis Post Dispatch on May 6,
1991.
“I feel very strongly about it [the Brady Bill]. I think – I also associate myself with the other
remarks of the Attorney General. I think it’s the beginning. It’s not the end of the process by any means.”
William J. Clinton, 8/11/93
Naomi Took
12.26.2012
An invading foreign power confiscated weapons to keep control over every Frenchman & once power was restored to the French government those leacers decided to keep control using the same measure. This “profound historical moment” had a massive death toll & should not be wished on anyone else.
bobfrommosinee
12.29.2012
Yet France still has shooting, even mass shooting, and Now even has no go zones, surrendered to Islamic thugs who ebforce their own law, Not the Law of the Republic.
Sal
01.23.2013
It’s a choice between liberty or security. Men prefer liberty, women and liberals prefer security. So kiss the second amendment goodbye. Do note the type of people who’ve been responsible for the most unnatural deaths in our history, the entity known as “government,” will be enforcing those laws. Selectively, as usual.
Sal
01.23.2013
As far as protection against the government goes…let’s face it, guns won’t do the trick. If the resistance to tyranny is too much to handle they’ll just start lobbing bombs at us with bukes and bio-warfare not being out of the question, I’m sure. I know they’d have no trouble cooking the state I live in because the Southwest has been used for nuclear testing for decades now. So the position that we need guns to defend ourselves from tyranny doesn’t make a lot of sense to someone who knows the capabilities of this government’s military. Still, better to be with than without them. And just because a tyranny is most likely going to kick your ass doesn’t mean you shouldn’t fight back on pricipal alone.
Tke ever school shooting or massacre in US history and put it next to the death toll of all government atrocities in history and it looks like a flea next to the dog star, Sirius. Here’s a hint, Sirius is bigger than our sun and our sun is VERY big.
Terry
05.12.2013
France has had it’s own spat of mass shootings in the past as well. In fact, European rates of mass shootings and mass murder in general (with or without guns) are similar to that of the United States. The big difference is that the US media makes a massive deal out of it, non-stop that make it look like mass shootings are somehow deadlier or more often in the United States.
In the 90s, there were more mass shootings, much more in fact, than the years 2000 to 2011. 2012 was an exception in that it had much more than normal. Many people make a big deal out of the Chinese school knife attack that happened in the same time, but they don’t seem to realize that, for many years now, China has had a major problem with mass murder and school attacks. This one was different in that no one died, but it was mostly because of the fact that the attacker was mostly interested in mutilating the children instead of killing them. The injuries he inflicted were horrific, but survivable. There have been attacks on schools in China that had Columbine level death and no guns were involved. There have been other massacres in which multiple adults were killed with guns, such as a 2008 incident in which 6 police officers were stabbed to death.
There were shootings even in China. In 1993, a soldier went berserk and used his service rifle to kill 23 people. This was more people shot dead than any US shooting of the 20th century. Interestingly enough, in the 20th century, the top 3 worst shootings were all non-US in origin. The first was in Korea in 1982 where 56 people were killed, the second was in Australia in 1996 where 35 people died, and the last one was in Japan (yes, gun-free JAPAN of all places) where 30 people were killed in 1938.
As for the laws in France, I should mention that the roots of modern gun control all stemmed from the political unrest and instability of the inter-war period, and were motivated entirely by trying to keep the Status Quo in place. This is something that goes against American values, that demand that if the government must be changed, the people have the right to change it by whatever means necessary. I do not believe in a violent revolution, since I believe we need a second Renaissance is in order and the old system needs to be discarded for the corrupt crap that it is. Finally, just because I need to throw this out there, I want to know what the historic rate of murder from the early 20th century till now. I ask this, because I rarely see that gun control does much difference to existing murder rates and trends around the world, and in some cases they increase greatly after laws are passed or do not stem the rise in murder and violence. I’ve seen enough evidence to show that gun control as a public safety policy has been an overall failure, and countries should repeal the laws passed for historic worries that don’t exist any more.