Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić has vowed to disarm his country following two mass shootings in two days.
“We will carry out an almost total disarmament of Serbia,” Vučić said, according to The Washington Post. “We must make a decision to confront this evil.”
Eight people were killed and 14 were injured on Thursday in shootings in two villages near Mladenovac, south of the Serbian capital of Belgrade. And the day before, a 13-year-old boy opened fire in his school in Belgrade, killing eight students and a security guard.
“We’ve been walking around like zombies the last 24 hours, looking for a reason something like this could happen,” Vučić added on Friday as he announced his plans to make sweeping changes to the country’s gun laws, according to The New York Times.
Vučić called for a two-year moratorium on new gun licenses, a full audit of legal gun owners and harsher prison sentences for those found with unregistered guns, the Times reported. He also vowed to increase Serbia’s police force by 1,200 officers over the next six months, as part of an effort to place an officer in every school.
In Serbia, there are about 39.1 firearms per 100 residents, giving it the third-highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the world, according to the 2018 Small Arms Survey.
The U.S. sits well ahead of every other country in civilian gun ownership, with 120.5 firearms per 100 residents.
Placing an officer in every school? I thought that would contribute to the violence. My bad.
Following the 1990s wars in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo, the entire western Balkans were saturated with illegal guns. Not surprisingly in a region where blood feuds and gangland violence were prevalent, there were a lot of murders.
But mass shootings like the two this past week are comparatively rare.
People over the age 18 may own firearms only with a permit issued after a thorough background check with police. A medical exam is also mandatory and must be repeated every five years.
There must be no history of crime, mental disorder, alcohol or illegal substance use, firearms must be stored locked in a designated gun cabinet, and may be confiscated if the owner is found to be irresponsible.
Gun owners are also required to pass a training course and a questionnaire about gun legislation.
The government has declared three days of mourning after the school shooting, which Belgrade’s mayor described as “unprecedented in the history of our city.”
I guess “thoughts and prayers” work after all. At least in Serbia. Maybe left-wingers don’t think God listens to Americans anymore.
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