Jacques Serais with AFP
modified to
10:49 a.m., April 01, 2022
On the move Thursday, March 31 in Charente-Maritime to defend his environmental record, the Head of State reacted to the news item which shook the Charente, the neighboring department, this week: a farmer was indicted for murder, after fatally shooting a burglar who broke into his home. And his words are clear: he is against self-defense.
Traveling Thursday March 31 to Fourras to defend his environmental record, Emmanuel Macron reacted at the microphone of Europe 1 to a news item that shook the Charente this week. A 35-year-old man, residing in Longré, in the north of Charente, was indicted for murder, after fatally shooting a forty-year-old man who broke into his home last Friday. The head of state said he was against self-defense and did not want “a Wild West”.
Not up to citizens to defend themselves
According to the first elements of the investigation, this farmer fired twice with a large caliber rifle at a group of four burglars who broke into his home, killing one of them, indicated Aude de Vallée, deputy of the Angoulême prosecutor. The facts took place on Friday March 35 between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., when the author of the shots was alone with his 3-year-old daughter at their home.
Emmanuel Macron reacted by considering that we were in a “State of law”. “Everyone must have security and it is the duty of the public authorities to ensure it,” he declared at the microphone of Europe 1. “But I am opposed to self-defense. “It’s very clear and it’s intractable because otherwise it becomes the Wild West. And I don’t want a country where weapons proliferate and where we consider that it’s up to the citizens to defend themselves”. The President of the Republic wants the French to rely on the police and the gendarmerie to ensure their safety. “This is also why I decided to create 200 gendarmerie brigades to be more present on the ground in rural areas”, he explains.
“I give you the rules”
The Head of State did not wish to comment on the particular case of the farmer who fatally shot a burglar. “I’m not going to judge a news item. I’m giving you the rules,” he said. At the end of his indictment for “murder”, the author of the shots was left free and placed under judicial supervision with a ban on appearing at his home.