Kim Kardashian mocked by NRA for stance on gun control after reality star is robbed in Paris

The National Rifle Association has joined the chorus of voices mocking Kim Kardashian West after she was allegedly tied up, gagged and held at gunpoint by masked men in Paris.

French authorities say the reality TV star’s terrifying ordeal began in the early hours of Monday morning when two men dressed as police broke into the luxury apartment she was staying at, pointed a gun to her head, locked her in the bathroom and stole jewellery worth up to £9 million.

But sympathy has not been forthcoming from all quarters, including the NRA. The pro-gun advocacy group is now using details of the incident to mock opposing stances on gun control, issuing a sarcastic tweet overnight: “It's shocking that these criminals did not subject themselves to Paris' strict #guncontrol laws before committing this awful crime.”

Kardashian West highlighted her stance on gun control in June when she tweeted about the “terror gap” in US federal law after the shooting at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, the deadliest in US history. She also retweeted a post from Igor Volsky, the Deputy Director of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, about senators who voted against background checks for all gun purchases.

The NRA later denied trolling her, claiming its tweets were instead “expressing concern, as well as confusion that criminals in Paris were armed in the first place”.

Kardashian West left Paris hours after the men who allegedly broke into her apartment fled, arriving in New York with Kanye West and a convoy of security cars hours later. She has not spoken publicly about the incident but sources speaking to US magazines say the 35-year-old feared for her life and begged the alleged perpetrators not to hurt her because of her children.

Kardashian has been accused of flaunting her staggering wealth in social media posts (she has 84 million followers on Instagram, 48 million on Twitter and 29 million on Facebook ) featuring her diamond ring or grillz and leaving herself “vulnerable” to being targeted by thieves as a result.

French police said the assailants had targeted “possessions that had been seen and noticed via social media” and stressed the event was “extremely rare”. They are looking for five men in total, although three are not believed to have entered the apartment building.

Johanna Primevert, chief spokeswoman for the Paris police department, told the Associated Press: “This is the result of people who obviously posed as policemen and who assaulted Ms Kardashian in a private hotel in her room by threat of a weapon.

“This kind of incident is extremely rare in Paris. This is a star who is famous worldwide. Do not confuse what happened to Ms Kardashian and probably was the result of an organised team who had planned their action with the assault of a tourist in front of Notre Dame (cathedral) or another tourist spot in Paris.

“It was really the celebrity who was targeted, with possessions that had been seen and noticed via social media, and it was these goods that the attackers targeted.”