Pippa Middleton caught up in Paris gun-wielding incident

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First it was Pippa Middleton’s buns, but now it’s a gun that’s got the eyes of the world trained on the sister of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.

Pippa was photographed in Paris on Sunday in a car with with three male friends, the driver brandishing what appeared to be a semiautomatic pistol at a photographer allegedly shadowing their Audi on a moped, London’s the Sun reported. One of the images the pap’s camera caught? A look straight down the barrel, with Pippa riding -- appropriately enough -- shotgun.

Those pictures were allegedly turned over to Paris judicial police as part of a formal complaint that has been made, the Daily Mail reported, though a decision has not yet been made on whether to involve an examining magistrate.

See the pics here, courtesy of the Sun, which reported that police were ‘poised’ to launch an investigation into the incident.

Brandishing a gun, real or fake, is illegal in France, according to GunPolicy.org, which cites specific French laws regarding firearms. A recent murder spree in Toulouse, France, that resulted in seven deaths has heightened calls for firearms-possession enforcement in a country that has no 2nd Amendment.

In January, Middleton took legal action against the paparazzi in Britain, sending letters to a half-dozen photographic agencies syndicating on behalf of the paps and warning them that the photogs’ behavior constituted harassment, according to the Daily Mail, which reported that up to 400 paparazzi pictures of the royals’ relative were being sent to media outlets on any given day.

The Mail said that most British newspapers use such images only rarely, but that their practice hardly dents a global market for all things Pippa in magazines and online.

The incident occurred just hours after Middleton’s 6 a.m. departure from a ‘fancy dress party’ to mark the 29th birthday of Paris fashion entrepreneur Arthur de Soultrait, the Mail said, while the royal sister-in-law was being driven to catch a train back to London.

If the gun is real, the incident could carry a penalty of up to seven years in jail for everyone in the car -- or two years if it’s a fake.

‘If the evidence points to her involvement, she will be prosecuted,’ a source told the Sun regarding Middleton. ‘Anybody involved in the illegal use of a handgun in public is liable to arrest and interrogation.’

Paris is the city where Princess Diana died in 1997 after being chased by paparazzi. Had she lived, Diana, mother of Prince William and Prince Harry, would have been Catherine’s mother-in-law.

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— Christie D’Zurilla
Twitter.com/dzurillaville
Christie D’Zurilla on Google+