Firearms in Western Europe (3 countries of observation)
Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2018 6:06 am
I have a team of mathematicians in Eastern Europe, so I travel there a lot. But I am just wrapping up a two week trip to Portugal, Spain and France. My wife likes the trains, so we took quite a few trips to smaller towns.
15 years ago, you mostly saw semi-automatic weapons in Germany. The bad spell in the 70s and 80s with domestic terrorism really punched up the police armaments there. But Spain and France were very different. Now you see the national police armed with military grade 5.56 and 7.62 select fire rifles. And they are everywhere. The French police especially seem to have lost all of their formerly casual attitude in public. These police are buff, alert, armed and look like they are ready.
I often wonder what it does to the public psyche to be surrounded by military firearms and not own any at home. In the South of France, firearms are quite common - most rural people still hunt there. But there are no handguns that I know of allowed in France owned by the general public. I believe that until a year ago, police left their firearms at work when they clocked off. (The shooting of police in their off hours has stopped that - they carry after work now.)
In the North of France, I know of no one who owns firearms at home, and I know a lot of French people (granted, mostly high-tech people). When I ask them how they feel about the heavily armed police, they shrug and say 'les temps ont changé' (the times have changed.) To the people here, the shootings by terrorists at night clubs and sports arena do not seem 'remote' - they are up close and personal. Everyone I know here has been only one person away from someone killed or injured in the few incidents that they have had. (I actually suspect they simply know someone who was close by and uninjured, but that has been stretched into 'injured'.)
In any event, the serious discrepancy in personal firearm ownership and heavily armed police seems to take a toll.
They say a psychologist looks at all the other people when a beautiful person walks into the room. I do that when the van doors open up and the police step out heavily armed. The public looks away. They do not (as I do) look to see the position of the fire selector or the wear marks on the magazines. They look away. They look down.
And to me, this is the unfortunate efficacy of 'terrorism' - the creation of fear out of nothing. Terrorism works. It causes societies to change in ways most people do not like. It increases distrust. No one can accuse a person of being 'racist' when an angry young man wearing North African garb is shouting Artabic in the streets.
The former drive for societal assimilation has broken down on both sides: the people in the banilieues no longer seem to want to develop a perfect French accent; the people in the central arrondissements no longer care if they do so.
France has always been a very class conscious place. Unless one graduated from one of the top 5 Universities, careers have serious limitations. Accents here count for a lot; perhaps more so than in England. But they did have a real sense of fraternité - French brotherhood. I am no expert, but I never hear 'fraternité' said here anymore. How was it formerly used? Often in the context where someone talked down about taxi drivers or service people. Someone else would pipe up with 'fraternité, fraternité, fraternité ...' as a comment back. That seems gone now. The 'otherhood' is present. The soft discomfort of terror is present. The heavily armed police are present. The gap between an unarmed public and armed police is growing.
When we arrived on Saturday, the demonstrators were throwing bottles and paving stones at the police here in Paris. This is also a bit new. I have seen Unions and protesters create mini barricades in Paris for decades - and with some exceptions, the police and the demonstrators got on well enough. The police believed it was very French to protest. The protesters believed it was very French to stop and have a coffee with the police. I saw this myself. I believe it is gone.
15 years ago, you mostly saw semi-automatic weapons in Germany. The bad spell in the 70s and 80s with domestic terrorism really punched up the police armaments there. But Spain and France were very different. Now you see the national police armed with military grade 5.56 and 7.62 select fire rifles. And they are everywhere. The French police especially seem to have lost all of their formerly casual attitude in public. These police are buff, alert, armed and look like they are ready.
I often wonder what it does to the public psyche to be surrounded by military firearms and not own any at home. In the South of France, firearms are quite common - most rural people still hunt there. But there are no handguns that I know of allowed in France owned by the general public. I believe that until a year ago, police left their firearms at work when they clocked off. (The shooting of police in their off hours has stopped that - they carry after work now.)
In the North of France, I know of no one who owns firearms at home, and I know a lot of French people (granted, mostly high-tech people). When I ask them how they feel about the heavily armed police, they shrug and say 'les temps ont changé' (the times have changed.) To the people here, the shootings by terrorists at night clubs and sports arena do not seem 'remote' - they are up close and personal. Everyone I know here has been only one person away from someone killed or injured in the few incidents that they have had. (I actually suspect they simply know someone who was close by and uninjured, but that has been stretched into 'injured'.)
In any event, the serious discrepancy in personal firearm ownership and heavily armed police seems to take a toll.
They say a psychologist looks at all the other people when a beautiful person walks into the room. I do that when the van doors open up and the police step out heavily armed. The public looks away. They do not (as I do) look to see the position of the fire selector or the wear marks on the magazines. They look away. They look down.
And to me, this is the unfortunate efficacy of 'terrorism' - the creation of fear out of nothing. Terrorism works. It causes societies to change in ways most people do not like. It increases distrust. No one can accuse a person of being 'racist' when an angry young man wearing North African garb is shouting Artabic in the streets.
The former drive for societal assimilation has broken down on both sides: the people in the banilieues no longer seem to want to develop a perfect French accent; the people in the central arrondissements no longer care if they do so.
France has always been a very class conscious place. Unless one graduated from one of the top 5 Universities, careers have serious limitations. Accents here count for a lot; perhaps more so than in England. But they did have a real sense of fraternité - French brotherhood. I am no expert, but I never hear 'fraternité' said here anymore. How was it formerly used? Often in the context where someone talked down about taxi drivers or service people. Someone else would pipe up with 'fraternité, fraternité, fraternité ...' as a comment back. That seems gone now. The 'otherhood' is present. The soft discomfort of terror is present. The heavily armed police are present. The gap between an unarmed public and armed police is growing.
When we arrived on Saturday, the demonstrators were throwing bottles and paving stones at the police here in Paris. This is also a bit new. I have seen Unions and protesters create mini barricades in Paris for decades - and with some exceptions, the police and the demonstrators got on well enough. The police believed it was very French to protest. The protesters believed it was very French to stop and have a coffee with the police. I saw this myself. I believe it is gone.