France - Stephen P. Halbrook

1670 FORDHAM URB. L.J. [Vol. XXXIX
caliber and above. 203
Exceptions, as included in the regulation of
December 16, 1935, included hunting, competition, salon, and fair
arms. 204
While requiring the registration of firearms facilitates the
confiscation thereof from persons who abide by the law, a timeless
truism is that it fails to prevent homicide by a determined individual.
Herschel Grynszpan, a teenage Polish Jew infamously illustrated this
failure on November 7, 1938, by failing to register the revolver he had
just bought and using it to shoot an attaché at the German Embassy
in Paris. 205
His ostensible motive was to avenge the mistreatment of
Polish Jews, including his relatives, who were expelled from
Germany. 206
The death of the attaché provided the Nazis with the
welcome excuse to mount the pogrom known as the Night of the
Broken Glass (Reichskristallnacht). 207
Weeks before, Nazi Germany
had already been disarming German Jews, including those who had
registered firearms, and had been taking other actions as if to
anticipate the pogrom. 208
The decree-law on war matériel, arms, and munitions of April 18,
1939 combined previous enactments. 209 It provided in part that the
acquisition and possession of weapons or ammunition from the first
or fourth category were prohibited unless authorized. 210
“War
weapons” were in the first category, and they included any firearm
that could fire ammunition used in any military weapon, and
“defensive arms” were in the fourth category. 211
Hunting,
competition, and antique arms were not included. 212
203. BARBIER, supra note 107, at 100 (citing JOURNAL OFFICIEL DE LA
RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE [J.O.] [OFFICIAL GAZETTE OF FRANCE], Jan. 15, 1936).
204. Id.
205. See GERALD SCHWAB, THE DAY THE HOLOCAUST BEGAN: THE ODYSSEY OF
HERSCHEL GRYNSZPAN 1-6, 59-76 (1990).
206. Id. at 3.
207. Id. at 6.
208. See Halbrook, supra note 85, at 115-34.
209. See Loi du 18 avril 1939 fixant le régime des matériels de guerre, armes et
munitions [Law of 18 April 1939 laying down the rules of war materials, weapons and
ammunition], JOURNAL OFFICIEL DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE [J.O.] [OFFICIAL
GAZETTE OF FRANCE], June 13, 1939, pp. 7463-66. The same law with amendments
through 1992 may be viewed at http://www.securite-sanitaire.org/anciensite/
armesafeu/d180439.htm.
210. See id. art. 15.
211. See id. arts. 1 & 2.
212. See id. art. 2.