Breitbart News reported that four gunmen in two cars ambushed a convoy of government vehicles transporting a convicted criminal from court back to prison in France on Tuesday morning.
The gunmen, who attacked commando-style, killed two officers, wounded three others, and were able to jailbreak 30-year-old Mohamed Amra.
A forensic is at work at the site of a ramming attack which took place late morning at a road toll in Incarville in the Eure region of northern France, on May 14, 2024. Two French prison officers were killed and two others wounded on May 14 in an attack on a prison van transporting an inmate who escaped, a police source told AFP. (ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images)
France’s Le Parisien noted that Amra’s street name is “The Fly.” Amra is “described as being at the head of a narcotics network” and is also believed to have attempted a jailbreak last week.
The French National Office for the Fight against Organized Crime described the firearms used in Tuesday’s attack as “weapons of war.” This is quite an observation when one considers that French gun controls place special restrictions on semi-automatic firearms and completely bans civilian ownership of fully automatic firearms.
The University of Sydney’s former GunPolicy.org described French gun laws as “restrictive,” not simply due to their intense regulation and all-out bans of certain kinds of weapons but also because of their rules for acquiring guns that are government-approved.
For instance, a person must acquire a gun license before being allowed to acquire a gun. And, according to The Local, the process for acquiring that license includes undergoing a psychological test.
Police officers gather at the site of a ramming attack which took place late morning at a road toll in Incarville in the Eure region of northern France, on May 14, 2024. Two French prison officers were killed and two others wounded on May 14 in an attack on a prison van transporting an inmate who escaped, a police source told AFP. (ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images)
The University of Sydney’s former Gun Policy branch pointed out that legal ownership of guns in France is limited to those who can “establish a genuine reason to possess a firearm.” Even those “must pass a background check which considers criminal, mental health and health.” Persons who demonstrate a “genuine reason” and pass the background check are then required to re-pass the check every five years. And even such persons are only allowed to own certain types of guns and “a limited quantity of ammunition.”
Also, A Review of French Gun Laws showed that the French background check is an ongoing process rather than a one-time event. Such checks entail acquiring and maintaining “an active shooting club [membership]” and going to the range “at least three times a year.” They also include “seeing a doctor every year,” who declares one “physically and mentally capable of owning a firearm.”
Yet despite heavy restrictions on the ownership of certain kinds of firearms, total bans on the ownership of others, background checks, licensing requirements, psychological tests, criminal tests, demonstration of a good reason to own a gun, limitations on the amount of ammunition one can possess, etc., guns which the French National Office for the Fight against Organized Crime described as “weapons of war” are used again and again during attacks in France.
Such guns were used Tuesday in Amra’s jailbreak and similar firearms were used in the January 7, 2015, Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris, in which 12 were killed. The same type of firearms were also used in the November 13, 2015, Paris shooting at the Bataclan theater, in which 130 were killed.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, and a pro-staffer for Pulsar Night Vision. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Beef is his favorite vegetable. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.