Thanks Louis! Very interesting. Yes, sounds like a similar process, tho here, as far as I know, there is no LEGAL mechanism to allow for a turning in of a FULL AUTO weapon or what are called "destructive devices" or "any other weapon" {grenades, Panzerfäuste, etc} outside of an amnesty, so one takes a risk doing so. Thus, I suspect some weapons, if the owner knows the law, are simply kept, hidden or privately destroyed.

I can only imagine the rural areas must have an abundance of "hardware" still floating about there in France. One thing many are unaware of is of the 5 million or so US M1 Carbines manufactured, a substantial number were dropped to Resistance and partizan forces in Western Europe, East Asia and the South Pacific. Frederick Spencer Chapman references the latter in Malaya in his classic "The Jungle is Neutral" and also states that few were turned in in spite of the call to do so at the end of the war due to their handiness and usefulness in pig hunting.

Regarding that and the Francophone regions, youtube is full of modern videos of hunters in Laos and Viet Nam and one of the recurrent rifles present is the good'ole US M1 Carbine, certainly rifles from the US/VN war era but very possibly including those left behind by the French and maybe even a few from WW2 days as well!