the quality of French Police Marksmen!

[30Three]

You may have seen in yesterday's news that a French Police marksmen accidentally discharged his rifle during the President Francois Hollande's speech.
Apparently he decided to change position mid speech and ended up shooting two people with one accidental discharge! (both injured, one in the thigh and the other in the calf) Apparently the safety was off
It seem's to me that there was a lack of basic " Safety lesson 1" don't walk around with a loaded rifle.
Doesn't say much for the quality of training

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[CINDERS]

More so why have you got your finger through the trigger guard if they were getting up from the prone position its not as if they were in a war zone......or picking the rifle up for that matter

[browningautorifle]

a lack of basic " Safety lesson 1" don't walk around with a loaded rifle

Absolutely wrong. If you're a civilian perhaps an unloaded rifle is fine but when in a paramilitary situation the rifle must be loaded and ready for use at an instant's notice. Yes, the time it takes to cock it can mean the difference between life and death. As pointed out, keep your booger picker off the trigger and fire control is set to safe. Hand should be in the operating position...

[enfield303t]

Absolutely wrong. If you're a civilian perhaps an unloaded rifle is fine but when in a paramilitary situation the rifle must be loaded and ready for use at an instant's notice. Yes, the time it takes to cock it can mean the difference between life and death. As pointed out, keep your booger picker off the trigger and fire control is set to safe. Hand should be in the operating position...

Exactly, you should move with a round ready to fire in the type of situation that is described, might be impossible to chamber a round quick enough if things started to go south. The issue is keeping your finger OFF the trigger.

I am sure the cop will spend the rest of his years on traffic detail.

[30Three]

It's true I'm am not ex military. But I was wondering why he had to move position during the time the President was actually speaking. I would expect the area to have been inspected and the best vantage points chosen prior to the VIP arriving. There is always more than one marksman on hand so if you absolutely have to move; it would be easy to contact your colleagues and inform them to watch your designated area while you move.
I agree that in a battle situation it would be different. But this is a protection assignment; sure you have to be ready; but it does seem unproffessional to me.

[CINDERS]

There would not be just one sniper protecting the president there would be a cell with a cell leader the point is it did discharge why the investigation will find the cause and the sniper may now have 2 ar*s holes the second being torn by his cell leader.
Things happen they have a fairly stressful job and sometimes things just go south thank goodness no one was killed imagine how the sniper would have felt then...... Hope they are all ok.

[30Three]

Apparently the injured got a visit from the President. Bet that made their day

[Flying10uk]

We were taught in the Army Cadets that a firearm should always be pointing in a safe direction, regardless of whether or not you think that it is loaded, and that the only time that a firearm should be pointed at a person is if you intend to kill that person.

[mrclark303]

---------- Post added at 06:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:19 PM ----------

[/COLOR]

We were taught in the Army Cadets that a firearm should always be pointing in a safe direction, regardless of whether or not you think that it is loaded, and that the only time that a firearm should be pointed at a person is if you intend to kill that person.

Blimey F10, your Army Cadet Unit must have been based in a rough area ...

---------- Post added at 06:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:27 PM ----------

Current French Sniper system

Design
The FR-F2 is an upgrade from the earlier FR F1 sniper rifle. It was manufactured by MAS (an abbreviation of Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne - one of several government-owned arms factories in France). MAS now belongs to GIAT Industries, now NEXTER.

The rifle barrel is thermally shielded along a considerable part of the barrel by a polymer shroud. It uses a different bipod-stock configuration from its predecessor, which is built just ahead of the receiver. It uses 7.62×51mm NATO ammunition, and is equipped with a scope, French army standard issue is either an APX L806 or SCROME J8 (Army) or Nightforce NXS (Air force) or Schmidt & Bender 6×42 mil-dot (Navy). The rifle is also issued as part of the FÉLIN infantry combat system outfitted with a Sagem Sword Sniper 3-in-1 optic, which serves as a telescopic sight, thermal weapon sight, and laser rangefinder. The FR F2 utilizes the same bolt design as the older, outdated MAS-36 infantry rifle.

That Cinders is NOT a handsome rifle, it really does look like a MAS36 that's been modified by committee

[Flying10uk]

Blimey F10, your Army Cadet Unit must have been based in a rough area ...

No, but you got "all sorts of individuals" joining the Army Cadets and the instructors had to be strict about weapon safety, for obvious reasons. Most of the adult instructors that I came into contact with were ex military and so I assumed that they knew what they were talking about.