Interesting thing happened at the range a few days ago. My neighbor walked up with a fella from France who was visiting the U.S. on buisness. My neighbor was going to let him shoot a firearm for the very first time (he looked about 35). he said in France, the only thing allowed was 22lrs. and he had never even had the oportunity to shoot even a 22. He first started out with my neighbors Mauser, then mini 30 but I noticed that he kept checking out my Bushy 20"A2 with drool running down his mouth so I handed him the rifle with a 30 rounder in it and you would have thought that he died and gone to heaven. Actually he shot pretty darn good for a first timer. He was really pumped up and thanked me over and over for as he described it, "letting him shoot a real M-16" (even though I explained that it was the AR-15). He said that it would probably be the only chance he would ever have the rest of his life to shoot a firearm. After I left I felt kinda sorry for the poor guy. Those guys might not be so scared to engage in some fighting if they had a chance to handle firearms and learn how much fun they are to own, handle and shoot.
Oh Well.
Base-Rigger

I am surprised he did`t throw down the rifle and surrender.

I would have been tempted to tell him that the AR15 is the only weapon in the world designed to be fired by placing the barrel end on the shoulder and push, not pull the trigger.  I will never forgive or forget what during the recent UN negotiations some French official called our fallen WWII soldiers "trash" that was littering their country.  Base-rigger, you were a better man than I would have been, and Troy your point is well made and well taken.

Good job at getting a non-shooter into the AR Base-Rigger.  Anybody we can get to see the "right" side of things the better, even if they are from France.

Dont blame the French people for the actions of their Government.  Would you like Bill or Hillary Clinton to be a 100% representation of you?  There are some OK French people.  Not many, but some.

More French-bashing. When will some of us grow up and stop stereotyping an entire group of people based on the actions of a few. I have many relatives in France who do not support all the views of their government. My mother is French and welcomed American soldiers with flowers when they rolled into her village in 1944, and still does not agree with Degaulle's decision to oust the US as they did. I resent all you individuals who insult my family based on YOUR pretentious view of what ALL French citizens think. You are just as prejudiced as the Nazis who considered ALL jews to be greedy and the slaveholders who considered ALL blacks to be inferior.

Flame me all you want, prejudice is prejudice, any way you slice it.

I have a friend who lives in Corsica, France who has lots of firearms. Only restriction is that they are all registered with the government and no military calibers. His handguns are 9x21. Owns an AK in 6mm. He has two ARs, one in .222 and one suppressed .300 whisper. Suppressors are not regulated in France so everything he has is suppressed. I think the friends info was a little off.

IB,

That is the funniest avatar I have ever seen!  I would pay money to see a chimp bustin some caps!  [ROFL]  Sorry for the thread hijack.

Not all French people suck.

Case point?

Jean Reno.

French gun-toting, smooth-talking bad ass.  I'm pretty sure some of his films were documentaries. [BD]

But remember, some brave Frenchmen gave their all to stop the Nazis, the whole French Underground and what not.

Like someone else said, how would you like it if someone judged America by the Klintons or Rosie O'Donnell?

Ah, how soon they forget.

If not for the USA, all of France, and Europe for that matter would be speaking German right now.

Good job on bringing one more to our side.
Scott

Very well said. End Racism!

The cheese eating surrender monkeys elected their government the same way the panty wearing weenies elected and then re-elected Klinton. Most Americans suck, it's just that most French suck more.

The French have been and continue to be cowards.  There are many thousands of Americans who died defending France in both world wars and most of the French people have forgotten that.  The next time France gets invaded they can defend themselves....oh that's right.....they can't do it by themselves.  Oh well....let France burn.

Just like we "elected" Bush right?
Don’t get me wrong: I'm not French, and I prefer the US to France any day, but do your history. The French fought ALL the wars prior to the rise of the British Empire, and they, like us once ruled the world. Notice how French is the second most spoken language besides English. NOT Spanish in contrary to popular American belief.

[red]1.) Respect your fellow gun owners by not posting derogatory comments of a racial...nature.[/red]

1.hmm. yes bush WAS elected .. just so happened the Dems didnt wanna go by the little piece of paper we like to call the constitution .. again yes.. he WAS elected!

2. you proved someones eleses point here about were America is going..
 just like the old great french armies....we will one day be the great power that WAS if we dont stop the pussifing of this great country .

[img]http://www.hunt101.com/img/062499.jpg[/img]

Just received this in an e-mail; couldn't agree more.


Eleven thousand soldiers lay beneath the dirt and stone,
all buried on a distant land so far away from home.
For just a strip of dismal beach they paid a hero's price,
to save a foreign nation they all made the sacrifice.

And now the shores of Normandy are lined with blocks of white,
Americans who didn't turn from someone else's plight.
Eleven thousand reasons for the French to take our side,
but in the moment of our need, they chose to run and hide.

Chirac said every war means loss, perhaps for France that's true,
for they've lost every battle since the days of Waterloo.
Without a soldier worth a damn to be found in the region,
the French became the only land to need a Foreign Legion.

You French all say we're arrogant.  Well hell, we've earned the right--
We saved your sorry nation when you lacked the guts to fight.
But now you've made a big mistake, and one that you'll regret;
you took sides with our enemies, and that we won't forget.

It wasn't just our citizens you spit on when you turned,
but every one of ours who fell the day the towers burned.
You spit upon our soldiers, on our pilots and Marines,
and now you'll get a little sense of just what payback means.

So keep your Paris fashions and your wine and your champagne,
and find some other market that will buy your aeroplanes.
And try to find somebody else to wear your French cologne,
for you're about to find out what it means to stand alone.

You see, you need us far more than we ever needed you.
America has better friends who know how to be true.
I'd rather stand with warriors who have the will and might,
than huddle in the dark with those whose only flag is white.

I'll take the Brits, the Aussies, the Israelis and the rest,
for when it comes to valor we have seen that they're the best.
We'll count on one another as we face a moment dire,
while you sit on the sideline with a sign "friendship for hire."

We'll win this war without you and we'll total up the cost,
and take it from your foreign aid, and then you'll feel the loss.
And when your nation starts to fall, well Frenchie, you can spare us,
just call the Germans for a hand, they know the way to Paris

It's all about responsibility, something we as Americans also need to pay more attention to these days.  If the systems broke, fix it, or sit on your ass and deal with it.  Just don't expect the rest of the world to feel sorry for you.  I'm an American, when the clintons were elected president, we as Americans were all judged the same. If the French don't agree with their government, they need to do something about it.  I won't stop bashing those "cheese eating surrender monkeys" until they do.

I trained with the French army in 1988 (French Commando Course in Brisach.)  Needless to say I was less than impressed with their military in general.  However, they do have some fine troops, albiet few compared to ours.
Their main downfall is that their general troops lack serious motivation from being under trained.  This may be due to their 24 month enlistment period.  They were even issued used uniforms.  Their French FAMAS is nothing better than a boat anchor, but.... I made some friends with the die hards and found that they are really good people.  I don't know how it is now but...their major tactical flaw is that only their officers know the tactical plan.  If you take out their officers they are basically fighting blind.
Many of thier Commando instructors and special Ops are good fighting men and I would fight beside them any day.  Please don't degrade an ordinary Frenchman because of their government, because we certainly cannot compare Germans with Nazi's.  Their government was Nazi, not them.

You seriously need to read some history.

George "awol" Bush was elected by the electoral college not by the popular vote.  The electoral college is an anachronism put in place to ensure the common people didn't get to uppity.  Apparently Bush was tailor made for it since he has never been one of the common people.

I have alot of experience with French paratroopers, Marines and Foreign Legion (which has many Frenchmen in the ranks) in Beirut and some other places and they were quite good.  Of course the redneck gun shop commandos think they know better...

I tend to cut the French a little slack. They certainly helped us durning the Revolutionary War. We helped them out in WWII- Were all even. [:)]

[lol][lol][lol][lol][lol][lol][lol][lol][lol]






[BS2]



It's been a while since I took history in college, so please correct me if I'm wrong:

Persian Empire: Fell after Alexander the great defeated them after decades of war

Hellenic Empire (Greece): Slowly faded away after Wars with sparta left both countries in ruins.

Roman Empire: Fell due to overexpansionsim, Germanic Invasions, and several internal conflicts.

French Empire: Slowly began to recede after loss against the russians due to their scorched earth policy/strategy.

British Empire: Agreed to give up most of her territories after WWII. Mostly through peaceful operations.


[b]Please, I'm dying to know Cluster: When exactly did an empire fall due to "Pussification"?[/b] [slap]

Methinks the French Shooter wasn't too versed on his own gun laws... Not too uncommon.
Just like how (guess) 99% of all Americans think that machineguns are either
A) Completley Illegal
or
B) Completley unrestricted and sold freely at gun shows to children and felons.

Or guns are "registered".

The French can indeed own a multitude of firearms, albeit in a more restricted form than us- though, the type of firearms they can own is pretty much unlimited. I recall reading in a G&A that they allowed machinegun ownership up until 1996- at which point they froze any future transfers, much like Canada did in 1976.
And I question the whole military caliber thing.
There is a Frenchman on AccurateReloading.com who owns a Barrett .50 BMG.

You can only judge a French person like anybody else and that is on a person by person knowing of them. The ones I have met needed a shower and deoderant.

From here [url]http://www.ssaa.org.au/aug97.html[/url]





In France Today

There are three categories of gun owners, made up of the private citizen, the hunter and the target shooter-member of the French Shooting Federation (Federation Francaise de Tir), the French equivalent of the SSAA.

Persons treated for established mental illness are ineligible for gun ownership - something the SSAA has been proposing for years.

What sort of guns are allowed in France, and who owns them?

Firearms there are divided into different classes, numbered 1,4,5,6,7 and 8.

The first category comprises any centrefire handgun or longarm in a designated military calibre.

As an aside, it is interesting that during the period 1973 to 1995 the French were allowed three fully automatic assault rifles per shooter, a right only lost with the introduction of this last European law, and during this time not a single problem occurred with a legally owned fully automatic firearm. This aligns with American experience, where nearly a quarter-million fully-automatic arms collectors' licences have been granted since 1934, without a single offence ever having been recorded with one of the legally-owned guns. If it does nothing else, this experience common to both countries speaks eloquently of the paranoia of our own Australian authorities.

The fourth category comprises what are called defence firearms, and includes any revolver and pistol, centrefire or rimfire, of a non-military calibre, short rifles having a total length of less than 80cm or a barrel length of less than 45cm, semi-automatic rifles with more than three shots capacity, repeater rifles with a magazine capacity of more than ten shots, riot guns with over five-shot capacity, semi-automatic or repeating military lookalikes, and disguised arms such as pen guns.

We will touch on this category again shortly. Guns of the classes still to be described, however, five, six, seven and eight, may be bought and owned in any number by the private citizen, along with the ammunition. No firearms certificates are needed, although the buyer's name and address are registered for the fifth and seventh categories. Break-action shotguns need not be declared to the authorities at all.

The fifth category is the hunting arms class. It includes shotguns, riot guns with a five-shot limit, semi-automatic shotguns with a three-round capacity, repeating rifles in non-military calibre and with a magazine capacity of no more than ten shots, and also semi-automatic rifles in non-military calibre with a capacity of no more than three shots and with no removable magazine. Total length of this class must be over 80cm and barrel length must be more than 45cm.

The sixth category is the blades and any-weapons class designed to incorporate any object that can be a danger to public safety. For example, a stone is a stone, but carried in a crowd with the intent to be thrown at security forces it becomes a sixth category weapon. A rusty hand razor carried at night in the pocket of a person who cannot explain why he needs that item is no longer a razor but a sixth category weapon, and not allowed. Mace and other such sprays have recently been included in this category, so they are still available to buy, but not for carry.

The seventh category is rimfire single shot or repeating rifles and air guns. It also includes single shot .22 pistols with a total length of over 28 centimetres.

The eighth category covers all guns (or copies), handguns as well, made before 1870 and not using a metallic cartridge. It includes all deactivated guns.

The new gun laws of 1995 brought a significant change. At this time, semi-automatic rifles were transferred to the fourth category, that of defence arms. This was of course before the latest round of worldwide gun legislation activity, and is further evidence of the international nature of gun laws.

For these the French gun owner must now have an autorisation de d‚tention, a firearm certificate.

In order not to infringe the property right of the owners who have bought them legally before the law was changed, French authorities have automatically issued owners a certificate for each of these firearms already in their possession. It cannot be renewed if the guns are sold, but it remains current for as long as the owner retains the gun.

[blue] Isn't that what I said?  Unless you are comparing their general military to a Légion Étrangère or paratrooper.  Lighten up ttheil, my commando # is 8800749.  [b][i]And yours is...?[/i][/b] [/blue]

LOL. "The Professional" kicks ass!


Seems like they do. I am a frequent visitor on automotive websites from around the world. They have amazing stereotypes of us...

You guys don't understand about the French, their  gun laws and the ignorance thereof... in order to show their mental and social superiority to Americans, and their greater efficiency to impress the Germans... well, they're just... PRE-SURRENDERING!