Paris would've been different if French had guns: Trump

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has said the terror strikes in Paris that killed at least 129 "would have been different" if civilians had been armed.

"When you look at Paris, toughest gun laws in the world, nobody had guns but the bad guys," he said on the 2016 campaign trail in Texas, after a moment of silence for the dead in Friday's attacks on the French capital.

Trump, 69, a billionaire real estate developer who admits he sometimes carries a gun to protect himself, added: "Nobody had guns. And they were just shooting them one by one, and then they broke in and had a big shootout and ultimately killed the terrorists.

"And I will tell you what -- you can say what you want, if they had guns, if our people had guns, if they were allowed to carry, it would have been a much, much different situation."

Trump also insisted that US cities such as Chicago, where there are tight gun control laws, see higher rates of violent crime as a result.

Republican primaries are set to begin in February.