EU gun laws are failing to stop ISIS getting hold of automatic weapons

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A surge of terror activity in recent months sparked a huge wide crackdown on illegal firearms, but the EU has failed to cast a wide enough net to stop ISIS obtaining high powered weapons like AK47s.

British firearms experts have pointed out the hole in the directive which attempts to impose strict new standards for deactivated guns.

The new regulations do not apply to so called "acoustic expansion weapons" which are often sold to filmmakers as movie props and are classified as blank firing rather than deactivated firearms.

And these are exactly the kind of weapons obtained by ISIS militants.

Such weapons can be converted to fire live rounds and were used in the attacks on Charlie Hebdo in Paris in January 2015.