This photo published in the Guardian shows President François Hollande visiting the Bataclan Theatre where terrorists killed 89 people and injured 200. A reader noticed the B&T MP9 machine pistol being used by the French ‘Secret Service’ officer (GSPR / Groupe de sécurité de la présidence de la République),

The B&T MP9 is sometimes referred to as a machine pistol and sometimes as a submachine gun. It sits in that grey area between machine pistol and submachine gun. My own opinion, having handled a few of them over the years, is that it is a machine pistol, at least in the configuration without a fixed foregrip such as the B&T MP9N.

The reader who sent this photo in said it reminded him of the famous photos taken of Secret Service Agent Robert Wanko, armed with an Uzi, after the assassination attempt on President Reagan (although the context is obviously quite different).

Thanks Silas for sharing.