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French Gun Roundup

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newsman3 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote newsman3 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: French Gun Roundup
    Posted: Dec 10 2022 at 1:42pm
The French National Police have been helping the French people to surrender there cumbersome family heirlooms without penalty.

Louis Losi shares a picture of some of these guns.

http://www.uscarbinecal30.com/forum/uploads/5600/FrenchNationalPolice.jpg

I sure hope that some of these minty and possibly of historic value find there way into a museum.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rebel92 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 10 2022 at 4:04pm
This hurts my soul. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jond41403 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 10 2022 at 4:56pm
Mine too, I wish I would have never seen this. Too much priceless, precious history just slated to be destroyed when they were just fine where they were in the closets of the French civilians for the last untold decades. Simply unbelievable

Edited by Jond41403 - Dec 10 2022 at 5:13pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GotSnlB28 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 10 2022 at 6:49pm
Wow, 2 M1A1's (counting the Thompson), MP40... 03A4 in there too? The M1A1 carbine is pristine! Makes me sad to think they will probably destroy them, but hopefully they can make it into a museum. Imagine if they could talk!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Smokpole Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 10 2022 at 7:49pm
Make you want to cry.....Cry
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jond41403 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 11 2022 at 12:05pm
I think there's a really good chance that most of those firearms are of historical importance just simply because of their location. A few of those firearms went to fight alongside our boys in France but never left. I sure wish they could talk too! Particularly the M1A1's
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote Marty Black Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 12 2022 at 7:51pm
My guess is those M1A1s were air-dropped to the French Resistance. In just 10 months, Operation Carpet Bagger (night flying B-24s) dropped 16,000 M1 Carbines and 498 M1A1s to the French. There were undoubtedly more, but those are the numbers from the Carpet Bagger operation in 1944. See CC newsletter 350.

The late Mike Stratton, one of the founding members of the Carbine Club and one of the first collectors to use a data sheet to obtain and compile information on Carbines and M1 Rifles, was stationed with the US Army in Paris in the late 1980s. By the way, if you want to learn what a REAL Patriot is - not a faux patriot you see in the news - read Mike's obituary in CC newsletter 319.

I digress...At the time Mike was on that NATO staff, I was flying into Paris 3-4 times a month with a 24 hour layover, and when the opportunity arose, we'd go to a gun and militaria show there. We were amazed at how much US militaria was still being found in barns and basements. All the US weapons were available. Some were nasty with rust, others were quite serviceable.

I was also amazed at the huge number of minty wool GI uniforms that were available for purchase...apparently left in homes, dry-cleaners, houses of ill repute?!

Anyhow, there were two types of US weapons legal for purchase....those that had been modified (butchered) to fire single-shot only...and those that had been "de-milled" by torching the underside of the barrel. Unlike our ATF, the only requirement in France was to cut a slice out of the bottom of the barrel at the chamber. You might guess where this story is going...

I was able to bring home to the US a BAR (minus the cut barrel), piece by piece over the course of several months. After retiring from the Army, Mike purchased a barrel from one of the surplus dealers, and voila! To say any more about that would incriminate me. Sadly, in 2003, Mike was electrocuted by a 220v line while making repairs to a home he had rented for his college daughter.   

We had great fun together, but he left us (and his family) way too soon. Regards, Marty Black



Edited by sleeplessnashadow - Dec 21 2023 at 5:59pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote pchanu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 13 2022 at 1:23pm

Most of these weapons will be unfortunately destroyed. You cannot even imagine all that was left by people. Collectibles from the 17th, flint pistols and even some weird stuff from the Middle-Ages, abandonned by people just unaware that they could either keep their antiques or sell most of them for really big money! (All semi-auto are legal in France, only native full-autos are now prohibited)
Over 150,000 weapons have been abandoned. Most of them were of little interest and value, but we had many of that WW1/WW2 kind of, plenty of P38, P08, M1, 1903, K98, 1911, some STG44, M1A1 etc... 
During this government operation, most weapons were abandoned, but people could also legalize those they wanted to keep. About 20% are said to have been legalized.

And even a Tankgewehr M1918 caliber 13,2X92HR was seen!! This one was actually brought not to be abandonned but to be legalized! This one is safe! 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RWS-67 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 13 2022 at 2:28pm
The only way to fire that weapon is to put your butt against a large tree & hope you don't go on your ass......... 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BHDAU1 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 25 2022 at 1:03am
I met a French police officer/government agent of some type in my gun store in Lexington, Ky. some time back.  He was in the States for some other business but I spent a good 20 mins talking to him about guns in France.  He had just finished going to several small police stations in rural France that had cellars/armories that were absolutely full of WW2 weapons to destroy them as part of a government program.  He showed me picture after picture of American and German full-auto stuff they had taken, 20 or so like-new WW2-production MG-42s/34s, dozens of MP-40's, 100's of M1A1 and 1928 Thompsons, 1000's of Garands, K98s, and M1/M1A1 Carbines, several crates of unissued M3 Grease Guns, and 1000's of other weapons from the WW2 time period from numerous countries.  EVERY SINGLE ONE destroyed and scrapped.  It was so painful to hear about and see, it's hard to imagine how many historically significant guns were lost forever.      
Co-Owner of Antique & Modern Firearms Inc. in Lexington, Ky. We specialize in used, collectible, antique, and military firearms. My main interest is WW1 and WW2 weapons and militaria.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Pro Libertate Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 25 2022 at 2:39am
Way to put a damper on the holidays, guys! LOL

Seriously…. I could’ve gone the rest of my life without knowledge of this. It hurts!
Eric
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jond41403 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 25 2022 at 3:55pm
Originally posted by Pro Libertate Pro Libertate wrote:

Way to put a damper on the holidays, guys! LOL

Seriously…. I could’ve gone the rest of my life without knowledge of this. It hurts!


I agree, I knew they would all be destroyed in my heart but that post just made it an absolute fact. I don't see how any government agency or human being for that matter could ever toss a world war II vintage piece into a metal grinder or cutter. I don't even see how the anti crowd could even do this knowing the history they are destroying. Why not put them in museums? Why not import them to countries that are allowed to own them and sell them? It just makes no sense for them to just be destroyed for no reason at all except for a picture in the press
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote thirtyround Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 25 2022 at 11:00pm
One thing Socialist's and Communist governments are able to do well in their societies and education.... Firearms aren't symbols of freedom or individuality. the "collective hive" has it ingrained in their heads....that their symbols of non-conformity, dangerousness, rebelliousness and against the collective wisdom of their overseers, .... therefore guns represent wrong think... i.e. if you need a weapon, you must be doing something wrong and illegal. This is obvious as following generations come into possession of these items or discover them, as the older gen's die off. These educated dolts feel like they're saving the world, making it a better place.
      
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 1st M1 88 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 26 2022 at 10:08am
I wonder if they would still be considered U.S. property?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Marty Black Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 26 2022 at 10:53pm
That's a good question, 1 M1 88, but I don't have the answer. The U.S. supplied the Free French Army with American uniforms, weapons, and equipment in WWII, the supply of which possibly continued into the postwar years, as the French Army used US weapons in their Indo-China War in the early 1950s.

Was all this US stuff given to the French, loaned, or sold?

Regards, mb
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Pro Libertate Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 26 2022 at 11:12pm
Of course, even if it still belonged to the U.S., I’d be genuinely surprised to see it suffer any different of a fate at the hands of our government. Our commander-in-chief just recently made the statement that “The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick.”
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Butsky Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 30 2022 at 12:40pm
Crying shame! Very sad…
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pickax Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 30 2022 at 4:59pm
Originally posted by Pro Libertate Pro Libertate wrote:

Of course, even if it still belonged to the U.S., I’d be genuinely surprised to see it suffer any different of a fate at the hands of our government. Our commander-in-chief just recently made the statement that “The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick.”

So true with the current POTUS, also let us not forget "captain crunch" in our Clinton days.
That pic in the OP just made me sick a bit.
Brad
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