On Friday, eight people were killed and at least 14 wounded in the second armed attack this week in Serbia.
Serbia was simultaneously rocked by two high-profile massacres. On Friday, eight people died and at least 14 were injured; on Wednesday, a teenager shot and killed eight students and a security guard at his school. The country is promising to introduce several measures designed to immediately tighten gun ownership laws.
School shooting
On Wednesday, May 3, a 13-year-old teenager shot and killed eight students and a security guard at his school in one of Belgrade’s central districts. Under the Serbian Law on Juvenile Offenders and the Criminal Protection of Juveniles, children under the age of 14 cannot be held criminally responsible.
Police detained the boy’s father: Interior Minister Bratislav Gašić said the boy “took possession of two pistols and three magazines of 15 cartridges each” and promised to take legal action against his father.
All the dead children were born between 2009 and 2011.
Street shooting
On Friday, a gunman opened fire with an automatic weapon from a moving vehicle in the village of Dubona in the urban community of Mladenovac, about 40 kilometers from Belgrade. After the shooting, he ran.
Because of this, the police detained 21-year-old Uros Blazic, the son of a Serbian army soldier. He is suspected of killing eight people and wounding 14.
Response of the authorities
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić made a special speech on Friday, in which he announced a list of new legislative measures designed to strengthen control over the circulation of firearms in the country.
“All people who have weapons, and this is about 480 thousand people, not counting hunters, will be checked, and among them no more than 30-40 thousand people can have weapons,” said of the president. According to Vučić, the fines for illegal possession of weapons will be doubled and the maximum prison sentence will increase from 12 to 15 years.
For legitimate owners, routine checks will increase, including identification, medical and psychiatric tests, and drug tests, the president added. This should lead to the “complete disarmament of Serbia,” he said.
Vučić also announced that around 1,200 police officers will be hired in the next six months to guard schools.
“Through this, we will not only improve safety by 99 percent, but I believe we will also reduce peer violence at school by 80 percent,” Vučić said.
The President also said that he proposed to the government to restore the death penalty in the country, but Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and her cabinet opposed it.
Consequences of the war
Mass killings are extremely rare in Serbia, which has very strict gun laws, but the rate of gun ownership among the population remains one of the highest in Europe.
Since the wars and upheavals of the 1990s, the western Balkans have been flooded with illegal weapons. In 2019, there were an estimated 39.1 guns per 100 people in Serbia. This number is higher only in the US and Montenegro.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.