French parliament rejects petition demanding debate on police firearms presumption

On Tuesday night, a majority of members of the French National Assembly’s Law Committee voted 35‑21 to classify a petition calling for a debate on a proposed presumption of legitimate use of police firearms. The petition, signed by more than 720,000 people, was deemed redundant because the related bill is already under examination in parliament and has been sent to the Senate. Committee members argued that bringing the petition to the floor would undermine bicameral procedures. Critics of the draft law say the presumption would create a de facto “permit to kill,” allowing police and gendarmes to be presumed to have acted lawfully when using their weapons, unless evidence proves otherwise. The debate mirrors a previous case in April when a petition with over 700,000 signatures against a separate anti‑anti‑Semitism proposal was also blocked.