BRUNOY,
France (AP) — The pistol the elderly French woman inherited from her
grandfather had once belonged to a German soldier, killed in a war
fought on France’s soil in the last century.
Now the woman has turned the heirloom over to police for fear that her grandchildren would stumble upon it.
French
authorities want others to follow the unnamed woman’s example by
turning in millions of old firearms, remnants of the two World Wars and
long-abandoned hunting excursions.
A
public outcry over a spike in the number of murders of women by their
partners has also prompted authorities to push ahead with the gun
collection drive.
The
country has launched a nationwide weeklong campaign to collect old,
unregistered weapons that authorities believe are tucked away in attics
and storerooms across the country that saw much of the twentieth
century’s fiercest fighting.
“We
believe there are about 5 or 6 million weapons that are being kept in
an irregular manner by our fellow citizens,” said Jean-Simon Merandat,
Head of the Interior Ministry’s Central Service for Arms and Explosives.
“Eighty to ninety percent of these weapons are in their possession due
to an inheritance.”
The
campaign so far has been “a real success,” rounding up 1.6 million
munitions pieces, although only 65,000 firearms have been collected.
There will be no legal consequences if weapons are handed over by the
Dec. 2 deadline, authorities said.
The
overwhelming majority of unregistered weapons that will be collected
will be destroyed. But a prized few that have remarkable stories to tell
will be saved and preserved by the state.
“We
expect those with historic or cultural value to be spared destruction
and brought to one or several museums,” Merandat added.
Anyone wishing to hold on to their weapon and join the ranks of France’s
5 million legal gun owners can do so if they seek to obtain a legal
permit. With a population of 67 million people, France has
proportionally much fewer guns than countries such as the US.
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