Thanks for the warm welcome!
Welcome - what brought you to France? What is gun ownership like there?
I went to University here and ended up falling for a French girl, just celebrated our 10th anniversary last week.
As for the gun laws, for years I had just assumed they were more restrictive than they actually are (a bit like how I used to assume that handguns were impossible to get in Canada).
There are several different categories of firearm, with different registration requirements for each. Here's a brief summary:
Category 7 : Airguns with more than 10 joules of energy and manual action .22lr rifles and carbines.
Category 5 : Rifles and shotguns of a caliber greater than .22lr NOT CHAMBERED IN A MILITARY CALIBRE limited to 2+1 rounds in any action, except for pump-action shotguns that are just completely banned (this is relatively recent, so if you had one before the ban you're allowed to keep it but you can't pass it on to anyone, so your next of kin would have to have it destroyed when you croak). Military calibers include .223 and .308 of course, but even older ones like .30-06, .303 British and 8mm Mauser (!).
To buy a category 7 or 5 firearm you have to give a photocopy of your ID card along with a photocopy of either your hunting licence or your sport shooter's licence. The gunshop then fills out a form that declares the arm to the prefecture. It takes about 10 minutes to buy a gun in this class (I bought a CZ 452 on Thursday and it was pretty painless.
Thing is, if you're not a hunter and if you don't regularly shoot in a club you cannot buy a category 5 or 7 firearm, so that's something you have to get in advance (not particularly hard, but you can't just walk in off the street and buy a gun).
All the cool stuff is category 4 (defensive arms) or 1 (military arms). And no, I don't know what happened to categories 2, 3 and 6
So, a category 4 firearm is a handgun chambered in a non-military caliber e.g. 22 l.r., 22 Mag .32 SW, .32 ACP,.38 SP, .357 Mag, .44 Mag etc. So as you can imagine this covers small caliber semi-autos and most revolvers.
Also a semi-auto shotgun or hunting rifle in a NON MILITARY calber holding more than 2+1 rounds
A category 1 firearm is a handgun or long gun firing a military cartridge.
With category 4 or 1 firearms you need to be someone whose job requires such a weapon (armoured car driver for example) or a member of a shooting club that has done at least three verified shoots during the year, spaced out a minimum of 3 months between them. In my case I'll be able to file my request with the prefecture in October (the last required shooting session for me to qualify) and it should take a month or two for them to process my request. Once that's done I can by the number of class 1 and 4 weapons on my request form (up to a total of 12 in anyone's possession at any one time).
So that's about it, if you jump through the hoops you can have just about anything you like (except for those evil pump action shotguns); no mag capacity limits, silencers are no problem, bayonets and folding stocks are fine.
With my authorization, I'm planning on getting a CZ 75 TS in 9mm with a 20 round mag and a Saïga (AK-74) with a 30 round mag and folding stock as a Xmas present to reward myself for my patience!
