BRUNOY, France (AP) — The pistol the elderly French woman inherited from her grandfather had once belonged to a German soldier, killed in a war fought on France’s soil in the last century.
Now the woman has turned the heirloom over to police for fear that her grandchildren would stumble upon it.
French authorities want others to follow the unnamed woman’s example by turning in millions of old firearms, remnants of the two World Wars and long-abandoned hunting excursions.
The country has launched a weeklong nationwide campaign ending Dec. 2 to collect old, unregistered weapons that are tucked away in attics and storerooms across the country that saw much of the twentieth century’s fiercest fighting.
“We believe there are about 5 or 6 million weapons that are being kept in an irregular manner by our fellow citizens,” said Jean-Simon Merandat, Head of the Interior Ministry’s Central Service for Arms and Explosives. “Eighty to ninety percent of these weapons are in their possession due to an inheritance.”
Despite many such historical items seeming harmless, authorities promoting the campaign warn that appearances are deceptive. The old weapons can still be deadly and can be used to perpetuate domestic violence, or even fall into the hands of criminal networks.
