Bonjour from USA!

[Invité]

Bonjour, mes amies! I just joined this group. I am from the US - Nouvelle Orleans, La Louisiane - but like most of les Americains, I am stupid and do not parle francais, only anglais!

I am very interested in learning about French activities and laws involving air guns, and pistol shooting. Pleae let me know if you can discuss this, en anglais!

Bien,

Jim

[kirby80]

i can speak english about french law but i don't know all french law to airgun and pistol shooting but i can ask a question in french for you and i answer you in english ok and welcome

[Blackbird]

Welcome on this board.

Even my English need to be improved, let me know what you are looking for excatly, and I will try to answer (with a lot mistakes )

To begin, French laws divide airguns into 2 categories : - and + 10 joules (I think around 600 fps).
You are free to buy the less powerfull, whereas you should justify a subscription to a club (shooting or hunting) to buy the others.

Full automatic airuns, and airguns which look like war weapon are allowed, although many gunships don't sell them.

[John]

Welcome!
I don't speak very well english but i'll try to do my best!

[HeReTiK]

Welcome

[alexgum]

nice to meet you, guy

[Admin]

let me know what you are looking for excatly, and I will try to answer

Let US know ... and WE will try to answer ...
haaaa this fucking Blackbird, even in the crowd he can only see his asshole !!!!!

Be really welcome Jim !

[Tommy]

Welcome on board old chap !

[Blackbird]

let me know what you are looking for excatly, and I will try to answer

Let US know ... and WE will try to answer ...
haaaa this fucking Blackbird, even in the crowd he can only see his asshole !!!!!

Be really welcome Jim !

Oui, mais toi, tu parles bien English

Un coup de fayottage, et ça passe... ou pas

[Invité]

Tres bien! I am sure that all of you speak better English, than I speak French! Some of you probably speak better English, than I speak English!

In the US, air guns are thought of mostly as toys for children: pour les enfants, oui? There is very little interest here in the US about powerful and accurate air guns, even among most gun owners.

This is probably due to several reasons: compared to the UK and to Continental European countries, gun laws are more lenient in the US; land is less crowded and cheaper. Therefore, it's easier to obtain gunpowder firearms here, and easier to find places to safely shoot them.

I also subscribe to a UK airgun list, and there, airguns are taken seriously. Like France, they have a distinction in the law between air guns above and below a certain power : "above" requires a permit, "below" doesn't.

I have also heard on this UK list that France is more like the US, than the UK, about air guns: that in France, it's easier to obtain and shoot gunpowder firearms than in the UK, so there's less interest in air guns.

Is this true, would you say?

A bad thing about the US: like our sports in general, our shooting sports are different from the rest of the world's. Thirty years ago, if you shot a pistol in target competition, you probably shot NRA Bullseye. This is like the International Standard Pistol event, except that it's for 3 guns: .22, centerfire (any centerfire from .32 to .45), and .45 (specifically). Most competitors use their .45 for the centerfire event.

Today, there is more interest in combat / action pistol shooting: shooting powerful revolvers, and semiautomatics, in events that are supsosed to simulate gun fights, or that involve knocking down bowling pins, or metal plates, etc.

The type of pistol shooting most of the world does - 50 meter, rapid fire, centerfire - is almost unheard of here. It's almost unheard of to find a pistol range with turning targets!

Well, enough for now, I'll post more later!

Jim

[Admin]

Concerning fireamrs in France, I will let my french friends talk about this point, because I am not French but Belgian ...
In Belgium we have absolutely no restrictions concerning airguns, we can buy bigbores airguns (like Quackenbush for example).
Concerning firearms in Belgium we have big restrictions, even for black powder guns.
That why airguns have a great chance for the moment in Belgium.

[Invité]

[quote="David" I am not French but Belgian ...
[/quote]

Like Hercule Poirot, eh?

Jim

[Admin]

I am not French but Belgian ...

Like Hercule Poirot, eh?

Jim

Yesss !
Great that you know him !
I am a great fan of this serie from Agatha Christie !!!!

[Sakis]

Welcome friend !! (We drink mostly beer in Belgium )

My english is very poor but I'll do my best... or in our language

[Blackbird]

I totaly agree about airguns in the USA ; Lepigeon, another (great) member, will explain better than me the differences of culture.

In France, firearms are easy to obtain to a certain point : full automatic is forbidden, and some weapons too.

Weapons in "war caliber" (I don't exactly to explain, ammunitions used in military guns) are hard to obtain, you must ask a special authorization to your Prefecture every 3 years. Same things for semi-automatic (even the Ruger 10/22 !), shotguns, and handguns (except black powder and air rifles, of course).

Other guns are considerer as shooting/hunting/leisure firearms, so you only need a permit to own them, it's unlimited.

In clubs, airguns are mainly used for competition/olympic shooting, rifle or pistol, and to train youth (Ecoles de tir).

In Belgium, where you need a permit to obtain firearms (including .22 Lr to war rifles), there is a huge interest about airguns - David will explain this quite well.

[Hunter]

moi je comprend rien en anglais

[Lepigeon]

Hi Jim,

Glad to see some US citizen here!

It is quite difficult to summarize regulations in Europe, since they depend on the country. A bit like in the US since there are variations between states... Basically, if airguns are as difficult as firearms to buy, people tend to directly buy firearms, since they are more "real" weapons, and airguns are quickly considered as toys only, indeed. I can feel this here in Quebec, where laws are roughly the same for each type of gun. Airguns are only available without permit if the speed at the muzzle if less than 150m/s (more exactly 500 feet/s, but I am more comfortable with metric measures). In Europe, you have countries like Belgium where it is now very hard to purchase a firearm, and you have so many constraints... (permits have to be renewed, you have to prove that you shoot on a regular basis,...) that airguns become very popular, and high-power airguns are considered as "real" weapons, no more as toys. I have spent 3 months in London, where the laws are insane, and shooting magazines are mainly devoted to airguns. In France, the situation is very different. The power of an airgun is limited if you want to buy it freely. You have otherwise to be member of the shooting federation. It is then as easily to buy an airgun than a .22 rifle or a 7-08 one (there is a strange law about caliber, and standard ones, as .308, require a special authorization... I wonder if the one that has decided this has not been intoxicated by some low-level raw cheese this day), so airguns are less popular, except for ISSF competition.

There are many stupid laws in nearly every country. Considering shooting, I wonder if I should not move to Vermont (and moreover, I love the landscape there!).

I totally agree that shooting disciplines are very different between the US and the rest of the world. It is perhaps better to say between North America and Europe, but american ones are quite interesting, and the system to combine various competitions in a quite short amount of time is strange for an European as me, and physically speaking, more intense... I still face some trouble to adapt myself, but it is a nice challenge... Next step, when I will finally comply will all the Canadian (stupid) requirements, I would like to start something else than standard ISSF competition... I consider for instance to join Dominion of Canada Rifle Association.

[Lepigeon]

moi je comprend rien en anglais

Maar spreekt u Nederlands???

[sahra]

welcome jim

[Shura]

Nice to see you here.
We will do our best to talk to you in english.

[John]

Il est bon il ets beau il est intelligent ce pigeon!

[JEFF30]

July 1969 :

First man (american) on the Moon....

September 2007 :

First american on Airguns

WELCOME TO YOU JIM

JEFF

[Ka-POW!]

Goodmorning, my flowers are beautiful.

[Invité]

[Joss]

Mon anglais est bien trop lointain pour me lancer dans une conversation, je laisse ce soin à des "pro".

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