Differences of weapons sales regulations between the USA and France

Résumé du document

In France for the first category (semi-automatic rifles) the right to bear an arm is very hard to obtain, to have it you must be more than 21 years old and have a license. This license must be approved by the French Federation of Shooting; you must first apply to this federation and after six months of participation to a shooting center people receive a letter from the FFS.

When the FFS allowed you to bear an arm, you must make a request to the police. They make a personal survey on the asker, when it is over and they didn't find anything thwart on the asker the police give her approbation. You then have three months to buy an arm. If you don't buy it in these three months the allowance expires. A maximum of twelve weapons can be held in which seven maximum can be first class category weapons. Also a new law passed in 1995 says that to buy any weapons of this category you must have a safe room in your house otherwise you won't be able to buy any.

-For the fifth and seventh categories (traditional two stroke shotguns, weapons with rim fire percussion) before the December 1998 decree, people who were more than eighteen years old were allowed to buy any even if some needed a registration into the police date base.

Extraits

[...] As the French culture is not a one this middle is less known and fashionable than it is in the USA. Conclusion: We can see that these two countries have two very different cultures on weapons: In the United States it is very easy to buy any kind of gun. There is also some lobby pros or cons this very lucrative market that are doing everything they can: -For the pros they try to limit the law against the right to buy a gun. [...]

[...] Although they are many laws to limit the propagation of weapon none is saying you need a license to buy any of them. In Texas: Texas resident, if not otherwise precluded by law, may purchase rifles and shotguns, ammunition, reloading components, or firearms accessories in contiguous states.” state license is required to possess a rifle, shotgun or handgun. There are restrictions on possession by a person: convicted of a felony or a Class A misdemeanor involving the person's family or household; or subject to certain orders issued under the Family Code or Code of Criminal Procedure” (Tex. [...]

[...] each state chose the legislation he want to put. There is also an organization called National Rifle Association (NRA) which claims that to have a safer society each citizen should have arms to at least protect his house. So they want fewer laws against the possibility of buying weapons. In total there are more than federal laws controlling the right to bear an arm. Eleven major federal laws have been set up since 1927 and the most famous one is the Control established in 1968. [...]

[...] They want fewer laws to make the access to weapons easier. They think the main problem in the United States is not the number of guns accessible to anyone; the real problem is what people do with it. The NRA is fighting against the government to simplify laws on weapons sales. That's why in 1994 they obtain a modification of the “Brady law”. This law consisted to make a research on the buyer life. This research had to be saved in a file for 180 days but the NRA obtained the modification to 90 days registration in the data of the shop. [...]

[...] In France as we have a very strict regulation we have fewer problem. As we can't buy any rifle or shotguns (that are not for hunting) there is less accident. We do not have lobbies pros or cons because our society does not interest herself on this cause. Even though we still have some accident but less than in the USA. But we can see that in both state the government are trying to fight this cause and try to abrogate laws to fight the spending of guns in one and to dismantle dealing selling place. [...]