![Memorial for victims of November 2015 ISIS attacks in Paris [image courtesy wikipedia]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2018/5/5/660x290/b_502x220x82/memorial-for-victims-of-november-2015-isis-attacks-in-paris-image-courtesy-wikipedia_1973547.jpg "Memorial for victims of November 2015 ISIS attacks in Paris [image courtesy wikipedia]")
When President Trump condemned the policies that Great Britain and France have toward the private ownership of firearms, his statement won an enthusiastic show of approval from the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association in Dallas. The French government, however, was not amused by the American president’s reference to the ISIS attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead. Trump suggested that had France allowed for the right of concealed carry, the ISIS terrorists would not have quite an easy time of it.
French government reacts with fury
The French government, understandably from its point of view, issued a sharp statement condemning the president’s remarks, according to the UK Independent. The French Foreign Ministry implied that Trump had somehow disrespected the memory of the 130 victims of the terrorist attacks of November 13, 2015. It also disputed Trump’s notion that citizens armed with firearms would have been able to blunt the ferocity of the ISIS attacks. In so doing, Paris missed the American’s point entirely.
European vs. American attitudes toward guns
European countries, with certain exceptions such as Switzerland, heavily regulate the private ownership of firearms. They do not recognize, as the United States does, the right to self-defense on the part of their citizens.
The use of weapons, except for limited purposes such as sports shooting and hunting, is limited to law enforcement and the military.
On the other hand, Trump is correct that France’s strict gun laws did not prevent ISIS from acquiring automatic weapons with which they were able to mow down French people like sheep that horrible night two and a half years ago.
Mass killings, whether they happen in Parisian cafes or American high schools, invariably occur in areas where private firearms are prohibited.
One root reason that the French government chooses to be affronted at the American president’s remarks is that the ISIS attacks constituted a failure of epic proportions on its part.
The French security services proved to be powerless to defend its citizens against a group of Middle Eastern terrorists turning its capital into a free-fire zone.
Trump offered an American-style solution, and the French government was offended and embarrassed. It was more interested in explaining why the American president’s suggestion was offensive than in coming up with its own solutions. France and much of Europe remain vulnerable to terrorism, whether at the point of a gun, a bomb, or a weaponized motor vehicle used to plow through crowds of people.
However, Trump was not seriously advocating that France become more like Texas where it comes to concealed carry laws, even though it might be advised to do so. He was explaining to a receptive audience why European-style gun control would not work in America and should never be enacted. From his point of view, it was mission accomplished.
