Delphine Schiltz, edited by Laura Laplaud 10:56 a.m., November 26, 2022

From November 25 to December 2, 2022, the Ministry of the Interior and Overseas France is organizing an operation to abandon weapons to the State.

Undeclared holders of found or inherited weapons, around two million French people according to the police headquarters, will now be able to simply dispose of them or keep them legally.

It is now possible to deposit your old weapons, which you would have inherited, in police stations and gendarmerie everywhere in metropolitan France and in certain overseas departments until December 2.

If nearly five million people hold weapons legally in France, according to the police headquarters, around two million French people hold them without title, mainly hunting or remnants of the First and Second World Wars.

Launched on Friday, the national operation to abandon weapons to the state is already a success.

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An unprecedented operation

Many of them this Friday seized the opportunity to get rid of their old guns, bulky and not very reassuring, at the Melun police station, in Seine-et-Marne.

Jean-Luc, 63, brought two weapons, inherited from his family, which were gathering dust.

"I was afraid of having a burglary in my apartment and that it would be used for a robbery", he confides at the microphone of Europe 1.

About fifteen weapons were deposited this Friday under the eye of the major who coordinates the operation.

"We didn't really expect so many weapons per half day," he said.

All deposited weapons will be destroyed

Among the weapons returned, that of Gérard, 70, is a little different.

This is a collector's item from 1892. "It's a pistol that my stepfather found while having the attic redone in a house he had just bought in the 80s. Honestly, I I spent more than 2 hours to find where we had hidden it because when there are children or small children [it is better to be careful] I do not think it is loaded but hey, I have not tried," he says.

Josiane also came to lay down her arms, a relief.

"I didn't know how to get rid of these guns. I thought 'if I walk around with a gun, I get arrested, I'm going to be told what are you doing with a gun?' “All the weapons deposited will be destroyed at the regional armory of Versailles.