Donald Trump
Donald TrumpReuters

While police are investigating the deadly attack at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, some lessons are already being learned. And according to US real estate tycoon Donald Trump, one of those lessons involves gun control.

French patrolmen, members of the Police nationale are generally unarmed, with only officers affiliated with the semi-military Gendarmerie allowed to carry arms.

According to reports, the two police officers who were caught up in the massacre attempted to retreat, because they could not defend themselves against the armed terrorists.

In a Twitter post, Trump said that it was France's stringent gun control laws – which have made France's police one of the few unarmed police forces in the world – that allowed the massacre to take place.

“If the people so violently shot down in Paris had guns, at least they would have had a fighting chance,” wrote Trump on his Twitter feed. “Isn’t it interesting that the tragedy in Paris took place in one of the toughest gun control countries in the world? Remember, when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns!”

Footage of the massacre at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris shows one of the radical Islamist shooters shooting a policeman at close range, after he begs for his life.