Mini 14 in France

Having lived in France, I can assure you that their police are hard core "take no prisoners" operators. Every country has policemen who are no longer ultra fit operatives....as we can see in some photos. However, I will bet a Molson that those "fat boys" are more then capable of putting lead downrange!
 
fugawi said:
Who the heck cares what they were carrying or if some of them were fat. CBC reported that the French mobilized 88,000 police and soldiers into the field to search for the terrorists, in what - one, maybe two days tops. My understanding is that the NYPD is larger than the Canadian Army.

The terrorist that attacked Parliament had to be neutralized by the Sergeant of Arms. Luckily the Canadian version was armed with a hunting rifle not an AK47.
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Well said, I'd like to see our govt organize a response of that magnitude in one day. It would take them a week to decide if they should deploy the army or not. The French did a good job.
 
fugawi said:
Who the heck cares what they were carrying or if some of them were fat. CBC reported that the French mobilized 88,000 police and soldiers into the field to search for the terrorists, in what - one, maybe two days tops. My understanding is that the NYPD is larger than the Canadian Army.

The terrorist that attacked Parliament had to be neutralized by the Sergeant of Arms. Luckily the Canadian version was armed with a hunting rifle not an AK47.
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Your are very wrong.
NYPD has 35,000 sworn officers.

The Canadian army is numbered to be over 100,000 ( full time and reserve).
 
I have been to France, many, many times.

I have spent a lot of time touring WW1 & WW2 Battle fields.

Believe me, you would not want to piss off any French Police or Military personnel.

They take their job, nothing short of, dead serious and respectful.

bazza, could you translate!


From 2001, I can still hear, taste and smell the French Air Force patrolling up and down the coast above Normandy.

I was there just a few days after 911.
 
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andrew3081 said:
Your are very wrong.
NYPD has 35,000 sworn officers.

The Canadian army is numbered to be over 100,000 ( full time and reserve).
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I think that figure refers to all branches of service (regular and reserve). The army itself, I believe, has about 22,000 regulars and a similar number of reservists.
 
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andrew3081 said:
You are very wrong. NYPD has 35,000 sworn officers. The Canadian Army is numbered to be over 100,000 (full time and reserve).
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First point is that I believe you mean the Canadian Armed Forces, not just the Army.

You can't use raw gross numbers, you have to ask how many people can be functional as a steady-state operationally.

Knowing that not everyone is on duty around the clock, how many police officers does the NYPD have on operational duty at once? 10,000? I don't know.

If you actually look at how many people in the Army actually work at operational units, you're down to nine battalions of Infantry plus about an equal total number of things like Armour, Engineers, Artillery, Signals, Logistics, etc.

However, just like police, the whole Army can't be on duty at one time. In order to sustain 3,000 troops overseas in Kandahar it took practically the whole Army, and out of those 3,000, only 1,000+ was doing the business (me not included), and out of them, obviously they can't all work around the clock.

Back to the main point, it's bad mojo for the Army to be deployed on home soil, anyway, because by definition it means the Police can not handle something.
 
I was a bit surprised to see so many pics of different agencies with the mini but it makes sense. If you think back to the 80's and before there were a limited number of

police style carbines that weren't ' military ' looking. Compared to the M-16's of the day they were a bit more compact in size, quite a bit cheaper in cost for an item that

would be seldom used, and in the opinion of a number of people equal or better than the M-16. No silly carry handle, forward assist, or flimsy charging handle.


It's to bad that so many agencies have gotten myopic in their thinking and planning. A stainless mini with the factory folder was pretty much the ideal trunk gun. Instead they're all on the M4 gadget gun bandwagon.
 
bazza said:
Having lived in France, I can assure you that their police are hard core "take no prisoners" operators. Every country has policemen who are no longer ultra fit operatives....as we can see in some photos. However, I will bet a Molson that those "fat boys" are more then capable of putting lead downrange!
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Absolutely agree. The photo's of police carrying the Mini 14 are CRS who are trained in level 1 public order. I would not want to get on the wrong side of them. Same for the Guardia Civil in Spain. I was holidaying in Ibiza and a fellow drunk Brit gobbed off and had a split head for his troubles!
 
Forgotten Weapons just put up a writeup about the Mini-14's built in France under contract:

http://www.forgottenweapons.com/french-police-mini-14/

Check out the link above for pictures...

Current events are not typically something that Forgotten Weapons is going to comment on, but the recent unpleasantness in France has brought to light a firearm that folks may find interesting – the Mousqueton AMD.

French police officer with a Mousqueton AMD (Mini-14)
French police officer with a Mousqueton AMD (Mini-14)
When French national police and security forces decided to replace the MAT-49 submachine gun as a standard weapon, they decided to look for a light carbine. Something less obviously military than the FAMAS was desired, and the natural choice was the Ruger Mini-14, whose slightly civilian appearance is often considered to be one of its primary strengths. Ruger licensed the design to the French, who have assembled them in-country with a few changes from the normal production model we are used to seeing here in the US.

Modified charging handle for Mousqueton AMD
Modified charging handle for Mousqueton AMD (thanks to Arnaud D. for the photo)
The guns come with rubber buttpads and sling cutouts in the stock, as well as a slightly modified style of charging handle. They remain chambered for the 5.56mm NATO cartridge (which as a military caliber is requires a license for civilian use in France). The fire control system has a selector to allow semiauto, 3-round burst, and full-auto fire, and the receiver heel is marked specifically for the French:

French Mousqueton AMD receiver markings
French Mousqueton AMD receiver markings (thanks to Arnaud D. for the photo)
“Mousqueton” is of course the French term for carbine, and the “A.M.D.” stands for Armements et Moyens de Défense which translates roughly to “defensive arms”. The “A.P.” is a property marking for the Administration Pénitentiaire, or Prison Service.

All in all, a good choice of weapon for the purpose. I don’t have any information on how they have performed in practice for French security forces, but I expect they have done the job just fine.
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I myself could'nt believe it when I saw two police officers with Mini 14s in France . but I came to the conclusion they must have dusted off everything in the Armory to find these due to the fact that the gloves were off . they did'nt care what they used as long as they killed those scum bags . and as far as I'm concerned it would have been nice if they could have killed them twice.

those two losers and thier buddy got what they deserved .
 
The Soldiers are carrying FA-MAS (looks like F1 the oldest model). AFAIK they are not allow to carry with a mag in the gun let alone one in the chamber, there are multiple pictures out there showing the soldiers were carrying multiple loaded mags in their vest.
 
Spent three months in Paris last year and got to watch the French Police and Soldiers at work in a variety of roles. They looked very capable. As good as any security force I have seen.

a Mini wouldn't be my first choice, but I am sure they use them well.
 
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