Reactivated and smuggled guns are being used as barriers to obtaining firearms in Europe break down, report warns
An “arms race” between criminal groups in Europe risks making it easier for terrorists to obtain high-powered, military grade firearms, a report has warned.
The survey says long-standing barriers to obtaining firearms have broken down in recent years owing to the emergence of the internet, cross-border smuggling of military-grade assault rifles into the EU, the conversion of large numbers of blank-firing guns and the widespread reactivation of weapons previously rendered unusable to be sold to collectors.
“The increased availability of firearms has contributed to arms races between criminal groups across the EU,” the report, funded by the European commission, said.
Timeline
The Paris and Brussels attacks
13 November 2015
Paris attacks
130 people are killed in coordinated attacks in Paris at the national stadium, bars, restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall. Seven of the 10-string kill themselves or are killed: two gunmen who shot dead scores on the streets of the 10th and 11th arrondissements go into hiding north of Paris while Saleh Abdeslam flees to Belgium. He told investigators he had been supposed to blow himself up at the Stade de France but backed out at the last minute.
18 November 2015
Saint-Denis raid
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader, is killed with 13 November gunman Chakib Akrouh and his cousin, Hasna Aitboulahcen, in a dawn police assault on a slum flat in Saint-Denis where he was believed to be plotting an attack on the Paris business district of La Défense
15 March 2016
Brussels shootout
Four police are wounded and an Algerian suspect killed in a gun battle at at an apartment in the Forest suburb of Brussels, where Abdeslam had been hiding. He escapes over the rooftops.
18 March 2016 Read more..
