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'Deactivated' guns were used in the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris. Now a new loophole in EU legislation has emerged (Photo: Kwikwaju)

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'Flobert' guns - Europe's latest terror loophole

'Deactivated' guns were used in the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris. Now a new loophole in EU legislation has emerged (Photo: Kwikwaju)

Murderer Amedy Coulibaly entered the kosher supermarket on the outskirts of Paris in 2015 carrying two Ceska Sa vz.58 automatic rifles manufactured in the 1960s. He also had two reactivated Tokarev TT33 pistols.

The guns had been decommissioned and legally bought in Slovakia, but then reconverted to fire live ammunition. Before he was killed, Coulibaly managed to shoot dead four people. At his apartment, police found another cache of reactivated pistols.

Slovak police had for year...

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Author Bio

Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.

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