Photo of Kyllian Barbey, posted on his Facebook account

A 17-year-old student identified as Kylian Barbey opened fire today at the Alexis de Tocqueville High School in the French city of Grasse. So far, eight people, including the headmaster of the school, have been reported injured. Barbey has been arrested and is in custody.

Grasse has been called the “world capital of perfume” due to the large fragrance industry presence there since the Renaissance. It is located 30 miles west of Nice, the scene of the 2016 Bastille Day terrorist attack that left scores dead.

According to the Daily Mail, Barbey, showed up at school with a hunting rifle, two revolvers, and two “training” grenades. Herve Pizzinat, the head of the school, attempted to intervene and was shot in the arm for his efforts.

Two students — identified as “Julie” aged 16, and “Akram” aged 17 — were hit by “ricocheting bullets”. The wounds do not appear to be serious, and no fatalities were reported. According to France24, five others were injured in the “stampede” that occurred after Barbey opened fire.

French Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem described the shooting as the “crazy act of a fragile young man [who was] fascinated by weapons”.

Barbey is apparently the son of French politician Franck Barbey, who is being described in the media as “hard-right” and anti-European Union, although he is supporting mainstream candidate François Fillion in the upcoming French election.

France and other European nations are often presented as exemplars by gun control advocates in the United States. Guns are not banned in France, although there are severe restrictions on ownership that would never pass muster under the American Bill of Rights. TTAG presented a general review of French gun control laws back in 2012.

 

 

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

87 COMMENTS

  1. I was just arguing the case presented to me that school shootings don’t happen in the rest of the first world. This is hilarious.

  2. well im sure its Southern America’s fault. We keep funneling guns into…France. Im sure it makes sense somehow to some idiot liberal somewhere.

      • This kid just looked mentally disturbed. I don’t think it had anything to do with his dad’s politics.

        • Sorry, could you clarify? It might be the wording or just me, but I’m having trouble getting the meaning of what you typed.

    • It doesn’t you racist pig.

      This was caused by a nut-bar with right-wing delusion.

      Most of the tragedies in Europe were caused by it’s own citizens, Not refugees fleeing a war-zone caused by the NRA’s top buyers that people like you support.

      USA has the highest gun death rate per capita in the world for any major country. 364% larger then France. All of Europe and major Countries are much lower then us, by a big margin.

      • The NRA doesn’t really sell anything (other than overpriced logo swag), so I’m not sure who their top buyers are. The US government sold lots of weaponry to Iraq, under that right-wing nut-bar, and winner of the NRA membership drive, Barack Obama…and those weapons are now in the hands of ISIS, causing this refugee crisis.

        I’m not sure why you focused on our “gun death” rate. Do you approved of knifings, poisonings, and defenestrations? Our overall murder rate is 4.5/1000, compared to 1.0/1000 for France. About 70% of ours are gangland violence and drug trade related. For the rest of the population, the US, with all of its guns is as safe as disarmed France. Now if you’d like to complain about our drug use, gangs, and poverty problems, I’ll be happy to join you.

        Our murder rate (not “gun murders”, “knife murders”, or “spear murders”, just murders) has dropped by half, from its peak in the mid ’90s, while the number of guns, concealed carriers, and NRA members has climbed dramatically.

        The rape rate in France is about ten-times that of the US. Well armed American women don’t get gang raped by groups of refugees. European women can’t say the same.

        Don’t you hate it when those pesky facts get in the way of a good rant about gun deaths?

        • Lower percentage with knives and bat-like-weapons and it’s difficult to spree kill with knives and virtually impossible to spree kill with a bat-like-weapons. It’s much easier for someone to shoot at a dozen people than for someone to stab or hit a dozen people.

        • Harder to spree kill? 1MM dead Rwandans killed almost exclusively with machetes and farm implements beg to differ. Not to mention 29 and 50 Chinese murdered in two separate attack recently. There’s dozens more, but it’s too much trouble to list them.

          Facts are rather inconvenient.

        • In 2015 more french were machingunned by spree killers, than americans were by spree killers in the last 8 years total. Per capita, you are 10 times more likely to be killed in a mass shooting in france than you are in america.

      • “The_Resistance”

        Oh, you’re one of *those*.

        You’ll have to excuse me for a bit, I’m laughing far too hard at you to keep typing… 😉

        • And I’m laughing at your pathetic gloating and childish viewpoints concerning as if having a gun will “save” from what has happened in France.

          A small rare tragedy does not compare to the 10s of thousands of mass shootings on a daily basis in the US.

        • “Tens of thousands of mass shootings everyday in the US…”

          Hyperbole much? There’s not even tens of thousands of murders in a whole year.

        • There went whatever small iota of credibility that you may have had. 10s of thousands of daily mass shootings in the US? If you’re going to base arguments on hyperbole, at least keep it within the realm of fact.

      • What tools do you plan to use in your “Resistance”? ‘Cause your pen and computer keyboard aren’t going to do a whole lot of good when push comes to shove.

      • Looks like we got ourselves one of those trolls that are actually paid for their troubles. Might even be Cisco Kid in disguise.

      • Your use of the phrase “gun death” as if it were one word is Orwellian, and instructive. You choose deliberately to put the focus not where it belongs (on violence) but on guns. You really don’t CARE about violence. You only care about guns. Even when a story like this one comes up, you take the opportunity to decry gundeath because the death…doesn’t bother you.

      • Troll. Almost certainly a pro-gun guy having fun. The devil’s in the details. The outrage is way too poignant, the claims are way too outrageous. The icing on the cake is the profile name that re-directs to yahoo.com, as in a person who could write this and actually believe it is a complete “Yahoo!”.

      • Islam isn’t a ‘race’, turd-factory. It’s merely a fascist, social-political ideology of domination, supported by regressive apes like you.

      • A minor question. . . does TTAG now fully embrace ad hominem attacks? If ‘racist pig’ is completely acceptable, may I now address ‘La Resistance’ as a compulsive wiper of other peoples’ bottoms whose mother was a hamster and whose father smelt of elderberries, or is that unacceptable?

      • @ The_Resistance
        I respect your right to freedom of speech. Anyone has got right to make fool of themselves through showing their ignorance.

  4. The liberals will say it would have been worse in the US because of um “assault rifles.” Even though France has had more people killed in public mass shootings than the US over the last eight years. And our population is about five times that of France.

  5. “described the shooting as the “crazy act of a fragile young man [who was] fascinated by weapons”

    That didn’t take long!

  6. My understanding is that guns are verboten in France, yet a pretty nutbar 17-year-old can get his hands on a rifle and 2 pistols and ammo for all, to blow away schoolmates. Yet no one recognizes that banning guns *does. not. work! ” How can anyone go from such a report to advocating more ineffective gun control, I just cannot understand.

    • I do not support banning guns but the argument you make has never made sense. Murder is illegal yet there are still thousands of murders every year, so should we just not make murder illegal since making murder illegal does not work ? I support guns in this country because our constitution gives us the right to bare arms. If other countries have different laws then that is their business, not mine.

      • The Constitution does not give rights. It protects citizens from the government, and that pisses libtards off to no end.

      • Murder is illegal because it harms innocent people. Therefore, even if it doesn’t prevent someone from committing the crime, murder should still be illegal. On the contrary, possessing and carrying a gun does not harm innocent people unless the gun’s owner engages in criminal/negligent activity.

        You’re making an error of comparing a “malum in se” crime to a “malum prohibitum” crime. The former should always be a crime because it harms other people. The latter should not be a crime, ESPECIALLY when the law prohibiting the conduct does not achieve its purported goal.

        • NOT being allowed to possess a gun IS harmful. Eventually.

          In all of written history people have been disarmed before they were enslaved. The founders recognized this. unfortunately, many individuals would prefer slavery, whatever they may say….

    • “My understanding is that guns are verboten in France,…”

      Ownership for hunting and sport shooting is allowed, with a ton of paperwork.

  7. My heart goes out to the victims and their families who don’t deserve to suffer this.

    Again another minor incident that does not compare to the dozens of hundreds of mass shootings on a daily basis in the US.

    And the irony of this attack is that it was caused by right-wing pro-gun Fascists.

    So before you enablers of tyranny start your ranting, how about expressing some sympathy for those who were shot. Then you can start up with your crazy talk. You are all cowards. Live in fear, die in fear. Enjoy.

    Gun death rate in France is 2.8 vs 10.2 in USA. 364% higher gun death rate here in the USA.

    • Does the family of any murder victim care all that much what weapon was used? Seems to matter greatly to those looking to restrict them….

    • “…dozens of hundreds of mass shootings on a daily basis in the US.” -citation please?

    • “So before you enablers of tyranny start your ranting…”

      Now, let’s use our brains before we go any further. Pretty much all of us here at TTAG advocate for the right of every person—including people we disagree with, like you—to defend themselves from violence and tyranny through the force of arms. Pray tell, how does arming the citizenry “enable tyranny” by a small, ruling class?

    • “Enablers of tyranny…” HA!

      I’ve read that line five times now and it gets funnier every time!

    • So how well does Bloomberg pay you for this gig? I might be looking to pick up some extra cash.

    • Your Islamist butchering gay people in an Orlando night club. Your Islamist butchering disabled people in San Bernadino. Your Islamists slaughtering thousands in NYC. Your islamist-traitor slaughtering in Fort Hood. Your Islamist running down hundreds of innocents in Nice. Your multitudes of Islamists raping their way across Western Europe.

      F@ck you, liberal ape.

    • @ Resistance Why don’t you mention the terrorist perpetrated attack rate in Europe vs the USA? Guns aren’t the problem; criminals and terrorists are.

    • Are the laws working? YES. Even with the black market we are doing just fine. Look at the following list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate The highest death rate from guns in western European country is Switzerland with 3.8 per 100,000 people per year. France supposedly a problem country is at 3.0, and Georgia supposedly relying on ‘shadow economy’ is far lower at 1.9. The UK, is lower still at 0.25 deaths/100,000/year. Compare this with the US with a whopping 10.3 (!!) It is clear to be seen that gun control laws DO WORK to reduce deaths both from suicide and homicide by way of guns and gun violence. Try argue with the facts I dare you.

      It’s easier to run or fight back against a nutter with a knife or baseball bat than a nutter with a gun.

      • Mr./Mrs./Ms./ (Xe or Ze?) R,
        Your “facts” assume that all other social, cultural, economic, political and crime reporting variables between countries are identical. That would be a poor assumption. For example, in the UK, a murder is not counted in the crime statistics until there is a conviction. According to a report to a select committee of the British Parliment, “Since 1967, homicide figures for England and Wales have been adjusted to exclude any cases which do not result in conviction, or where the person is not prosecuted on grounds of self defence or otherwise.” See the link here: https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmselect/cmhaff/95/95ap25.htm

        • Also… There is no real information available when it comes to US homicide rates, violent crime, gun-related crime or incidents, hell even suicides are just based on national averages. Pure guesswork. I read a story about some reporter trying to come up with real figures. Forexample the official US number is that the American police shoot dead around 450 people a year. While american reporters who try to keep track of this shit, says its around 1200. And even that is inconclusive. Some say as much as 60% of american suicides are kept out of the police reports, and I quote “out of respect for the families” You see there SHOULD be a FBI database on each and every one of americas murders and serious crime. There SHOULD be a system where each and every one of USAs over 17 000 police districts, Sheriff, State police and so on, have access to stuff… Like you see on CSI and other police shows where its all on the computer. Which every civilized country has. But there is no such thing in USA. The system for reporting stuff in to FBI registry is completely voluntary and often under funded police districts spend zero human resources on this. Some districts havent reported in shit for decades. Others, like the entire state of Florida, opts out entirely. The chief of FBI said recently he was embarrassed to not sit on accurate information about police shootings or homicides in his own country. Because…. Its all national averages based on a few, cherry picked precincts and not a database with actual cases. The death-by-gun statistics are estimated to between 33 000 and 35 000 but is often quoted as low as 11 000 and they all go WOHOO. Lower than last year… Oh yeah ? BAsed on what exactly. But the biggest problem. The most amazing issue is this…. When police find a dead person in the forest, in a dumpster, under some rubbish in a back alley, they maybe find that he has been dead for 4 months just to take a number. Now were in January 2017, so that would be a 2016 murder case then. Also it may take as much as 3 months to establish evidence, track down his identity and stuff like that so cases often drag out into the next year. But there is no way in the US system to add this new murder case to last years statistics. Its nobodys job to do that. And there is no system for it. And the murder does not go into THIS years statistics either because its clearly marked 2016, right. So these cases extremely often….. Fall entirely out of the statistics. I also tried to research how many die or get injured as a result of police chases. Some precincts count innocent bystanders, passengers and others into the mix, others do not, others again havent reported shit for years, so again, you meet the wall of “no reliable information exists” Are we getting the picture yet ? The US police are spectacularly cowboy amateurish and you cant trust a single statistics. There are PLENTY of news articles talking about this all over the net from all of USAs major news networks. Finally… Recently US police started putting up listening devices on poles above troubled neighborhoods across USA and they triangulate the sound and find locations to where gun shots come from. This is also extremely easy to look up by searching for news articles about it. They were very surprised as to how many gun shots they heard. Estimating as many as 70% of gunshots, or more, are un reported and hence never put into these oooh so reliabile violent crime and gun statistics that americans so casually throw around in debates as if it means SHIT. Again… Are we getting the picture yet ? In Europe, this Texas cowboy gun culture virtually doesnt exist. I know americans believe we were all walking around with guns until one day “The government” came and took our rights away. Haha but then….Gun Nuts. What do they know.

        • Yep, they fudge the numbers. And did you see the next sentence? “This reduces the apparent number of homicides by between 13 per cent and 15 per cent.” England claims to have an 85-87% conviction rate for homicides by firearm? That seems dubiously high to me, especially considering how Chicago only solves (not convicts, but solves) only 20% of its homicides.
          http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-homicide-clearance-rate-20160909-story.html

      • What’s your problem with gun suicides?

        Progressives are supposedly all about having the right for the individual to do as they damn will please to their own selves…

  9. Fake news. Everybody knows that these things don’t happen in other countries. He father, son, and holy Obama said so himself (sarc)

    • I do this quite alot. Debating gun-nuts in a factual, realistic way, is always like trying to explain evolution to an american creationist. It simply cannot be done. Also… There is no real information available when it comes to US homicide rates, violent crime, gun-related crime or incidents, hell even suicides are just based on national averages. Pure guesswork. I read a story about some reporter trying to come up with real figures. Forexample the official US number is that the American police shoot dead around 450 people a year. While american reporters who try to keep track of this shit, says its around 1200. And even that is inconclusive. Some say as much as 60% of american suicides are kept out of the police reports, and I quote “out of respect for the families” You see there SHOULD be a FBI database on each and every one of americas murders and serious crime. There SHOULD be a system where each and every one of USAs over 17 000 police districts, Sheriff, State police and so on, have access to stuff… Like you see on CSI and other police shows where its all on the computer. Which every civilized country has. But there is no such thing in USA. The system for reporting stuff in to FBI registry is completely voluntary and often under funded police districts spend zero human resources on this. Some districts havent reported in shit for decades. Others, like the entire state of Florida, opts out entirely. The chief of FBI said recently he was embarrassed to not sit on accurate information about police shootings or homicides in his own country. Because…. Its all national averages based on a few, cherry picked precincts and not a database with actual cases. The death-by-gun statistics are estimated to between 33 000 and 35 000 but is often quoted as low as 11 000 and they all go WOHOO. Lower than last year… Oh yeah ? BAsed on what exactly. But the biggest problem. The most amazing issue is this…. When police find a dead person in the forest, in a dumpster, under some rubbish in a back alley, they maybe find that he has been dead for 4 months just to take a number. Now were in January 2017, so that would be a 2016 murder case then. Also it may take as much as 3 months to establish evidence, track down his identity and stuff like that so cases often drag out into the next year. But there is no way in the US system to add this new murder case to last years statistics. Its nobodys job to do that. And there is no system for it. And the murder does not go into THIS years statistics either because its clearly marked 2016, right. So these cases extremely often….. Fall entirely out of the statistics. I also tried to research how many die or get injured as a result of police chases. Some precincts count innocent bystanders, passengers and others into the mix, others do not, others again havent reported shit for years, so again, you meet the wall of “no reliable information exists” Are we getting the picture yet ? The US police are spectacularly cowboy amateurish and you cant trust a single statistics. There are PLENTY of news articles talking about this all over the net from all of USAs major news networks. Finally… Recently US police started putting up listening devices on poles above troubled neighborhoods across USA and they triangulate the sound and find locations to where gun shots come from. This is also extremely easy to look up by searching for news articles about it. They were very surprised as to how many gun shots they heard. Estimating as many as 70% of gunshots, or more, are un reported and hence never put into these oooh so reliabile violent crime and gun statistics that americans so casually throw around in debates as if it means SHIT. Again… Are we getting the picture yet ? In Europe, this Texas cowboy gun culture virtually doesnt exist. I know americans believe we were all walking around with guns until one day “The government” came and took our rights away. Haha but then…. Gun Nuts, What do they know.

      • You wouldn’t know factual if it sat on your table and pissed in your cornflakes.
        The only reason you’re trolling here is because everyone who knows you will have nothing to do with your attention seeking ways.

      • Guess I need to move to safe and peaceful syria where firearms ownership are severely restricted and licenses only allowed to be given to arabs

    • You see there SHOULD be a FBI database on each and every one of americas murders and serious crime. There SHOULD be a system where each and every one of USAs over 17 000 police districts, Sheriff, State police and so on, have access to stuff… Like you see on CSI and other police shows where its all on the computer. Which every civilized country has. But there is no such thing in USA. The system for reporting stuff in to FBI registry is completely voluntary and often under funded police districts spend zero human resources on this. Some districts havent reported in shit for decades. Others, like the entire state of Florida, opts out entirely. The chief of FBI said recently he was embarrassed to not sit on accurate information about police shootings or homicides in his own country. Because…. Its all national averages based on a few, cherry picked precincts and not a database with actual cases. The death-by-gun statistics are estimated to between 33 000 and 35 000 but is often quoted as low as 11 000 and they all go WOHOO. Lower than last year… Oh yeah ? BAsed on what exactly. But the biggest problem. The most amazing issue is this…. When police find a dead person in the forest, in a dumpster, under some rubbish in a back alley, they maybe find that he has been dead for 4 months just to take a number. Now were in January 2017, so that would be a 2016 murder case then. Also it may take as much as 3 months to establish evidence, track down his identity and stuff like that so cases often drag out into the next year. But there is no way in the US system to add this new murder case to last years statistics. Its nobodys job to do that. And there is no system for it. And the murder does not go into THIS years statistics either because its clearly marked 2016, right. So these cases extremely often….. Fall entirely out of the statistics. I also tried to research how many die or get injured as a result of police chases. Some precincts count innocent bystanders, passengers and others into the mix, others do not, others again havent reported shit for years, so again, you meet the wall of “no reliable information exists” Are we getting the picture yet ? The US police are spectacularly cowboy amateurish and you cant trust a single statistics. There are PLENTY of news articles talking about this all over the net from all of USAs major news networks. Finally… Recently US police started putting up listening devices on poles above troubled neighborhoods across USA and they triangulate the sound and find locations to where gun shots come from. This is also extremely easy to look up by searching for news articles about it. They were very surprised as to how many gun shots they heard. Estimating as many as 70% of gunshots, or more, are un reported and hence never put into these oooh so reliabile violent crime and gun statistics that americans so casually throw around in debates as if it means SHIT. Again… Are we getting the picture yet ? In Europe, this Texas cowboy gun culture virtually doesnt exist. I know americans believe we were all walking around with guns until one day “The government” came and took our rights away. Haha but then…. gun nuts. What do they know.

      • The assertion that there are unreported/uncounted homicides in the US. You really do pull this shit out of your ass.

        • I dunno, it may not be what we folks who believe in the scientific “binary” approach is a “chick”. Could be one of the estrogen-filled cupcake cucks the schools are churning out, or he may be a flaming fem.

  10. I really hope that the gun in the picture was fully loaded and I really hope this moron pulled the trigger right after the picture. We do not need this piece of shit to breed.

  11. While no mention of caliber, with such a low casualty count (0 dead, 3 wounded, and more hurt in the stampede as a result of the attack) I would speculate a .22 rimfire.

    In many European countries .22 firearms have either very low restrictions or are unrestricted. Between the low caliber and heavy seasonal clothing probably contributed to the few injuries.

      • Sorry if I don’t let emotion get in the way of logic and facts. I blame the scientific education I had at high school and the Business IT degree I studied at University, with history subjects (ie: cause and effect) for my mandatory non-core electives.

        If you read my posts carefully you might have a clue to my location. Hint, it’s in the name.

        • I don’t need to.

          Whatever college you went to, You obviously need to get the refund.

          What gets me every time is if gun control won’t solve the problem completely, it’s not worth doing at all in these individuals’ minds. Can’t argue with that logic; might as well do nothing—ever.

          Firearm-related death rate per 100,000 population per year:

          USA 10.54 per capita
          mexico 7.64 per capita
          UK 0.23 per capita
          south korea 0.08 per capita
          Japan 0.06 per capita

          Switzerland 3.08 (has no gun restriction and has the highest deaths by guns per 100k in Europe)

        • You know, un-conflating suicides with murders cuts that in half. Suicide is a cultural thing, the Japanese have a suicide rate of what, 6-8 times the US or something? (I forget, feel free to google) Yet, they have few guns (at least the non-criminals, the Yakuza has plenty).Huh? Shoots holes in your causality link, eh?

          But on to the real fun, ya gotta learn how to write on at least a 5th grade level. If you’re gonna use statistics like a grown-up, then you ought at least understand WTF they actually mean.

          Per Capita means “Per Person”. So by your insane stats the US had 10 deaths, per person. Then there’s the rest of the manipulation of data, conflation of unrelated events, and omission of facts. If you want to sell your views, then you damned well better have your facts straight and understand them. Sadly, you don’t.

      • You didn’t clearly read my original post at all.

        I speculated the caliber of the guns used based on the casualty numbers. Then I noted the lack of apparent restrictions of that caliber in European nations firearms laws.

        At NO point did I mention gun control.

        Crawl back in your hole troll (or the basement) and keep reading Alinsky’s “Rules for radicals”. This is an adult area.

  12. If you want to truly compare apples to apples then compare states to states. France is a state, Germany is a state. So compare the murder rates of France to Kansas or Texas.

    People neglect the fact that the United States is 50 individual states, which in other parts of the world is referred to as country.

    If you want to be fair on your comparison use the whole European Union combined rate and compare that to the United States, although I’m sure Turkey alone would tilt it by itself.

    Yet why deal with facts.

    • Because like everyone on here except me, Your stats and stats and numerous “studies” are bunk and have no basis in reality.

      The EU barely suffers mass killings, This mere incident does not compare to the 100s of thousands of mass shootings that happen everyday in the US.

      People like you believe what ever fake news this website spews.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCUfriulxPM (guns laws in the world compared to the USA)

      • According to the FBI a mass shooting involves 4 or more killed. So you are saying at minimum 400,000 people died a day or 146,000,000 million a year died.

        Do you not see the problem with your statement? Surely you are not that stupid.

        • Stupid? Yes. Crazy? Even more so…. ive sifted through his comments on this post alone, and this weirdo must work for Blumberg or something. Who has the time on their hands to post that much crap? He must work for the minstry of peace or thought er something.

      • The greatest slaughters in human history took place on European soil, thanks to statists like you. We don’t have Napoleons & Hitlers, precisely because the people themselves are armed. I’ll keep our system, thanks.

        • Hey now! Don’t forget the Chinese, they may work cheap but they are really good at killing each other.

  14. My thoughts and prayers to the victims.

    With that said, I’m a “right wing nut job” who would be responding to a situation like this with a gun to take out the bad guy. Perhaps “The Resistance,” with his high-powered keyboard on Mom’s computer and Bloomberg’s cash wouldn’t approve.

    Then again, I could care less about the opinions of anti gunners.

  15. Mr resistance troll has his facts wrong on mass killings with a knife IE: China, under specific circumstances a knife wielder within 20 feet is a very deadly opponent even if his victim is armed! whats a matter yo momma didn’t love you and let you have guns, so now you compensating all your aggression’s on non wing nut types that don’t follow your particular creed!
    as far as Mass killings goes we haven’t come close to Hitler or your sugar daddy Stalin hope you enjoy the money Bloomie is paying you, what you ain’t been paid yet boy you gotta get a life.

  16. This has to be FAKE news? That POS Obama said that this type of crime happens in America not the rest of the world. So there….

Comments are closed.