Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic promised an “almost total disarmament” after two mass shootings shocked the western Balkan nation this week. However, whether Vucic can follow through with his promise given the proliferation of illegal and unregistered weapons in Serbia, as well as the entrenched culture of violence even at the highest levels, is doubtful.
Though Serbia is tied for the third-highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the world, with 39.1 firearms per 100,000 residents, mass shooting events are quite rare; the last one was in 2016, when a man killed five and wounded 22 in a shooting at a cafe in the village of Zitiste, in northern Serbia. This week’s shootings have inspired Vucic to call for widespread disarmament similar, much as Australia did after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. However, the measures that Vucic has proposed, including a moratorium on new gun licenses and a month-long general amnesty for illegal firearms, cannot address the violence that is deeply entrenched in Serbia, and which often benefits Vucic and those in power.
On Wednesday, a 13-year-old boy killed nine people — eight students and a security guard — at a Belgrade-area elementary school with two pistols he had taken from his father’s apartment. According to Serbian police, the alleged shooter also had four Molotov cocktails, a map of his planned route, and a list of his targets, Politico Europe reported Wednesday. Six children and a teacher were also injured in the shooting, and the father of the shooter has also been arrested.
Just a day later, a 20-year-old gunman killed eight people and wounded 14 about 50 miles away from Belgrade, apparently using illegally obtained firearms. The alleged shooter apparently had an altercation in a schoolyard in the village of Dubona, left to get a handgun and a rifle and opened fire, according to Serbian state broadcaster RTS. He then continued shooting from a car, firing seemingly at random at people in two other…
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