SERBIANS HAND IN 108,833 ILLEGAL WEAPONS IN AMNESTY AFTER DEADLY SHOOTINGS

Sun 02 July 2023:

In Serbia, 108,833 illegal weapons were handed in during an amnesty after 18 people were shot dead in two separate mass killings in May, a police spokeswoman said on Saturday, according to Tanjug news agency.

The amnesty expired at midnight after one extension. Police said around 82,400 handguns, about 26,500 mines and other explosive devices, as well as 4.2 million pieces of ammunition were handed in. The amnesty meant people were not charged for having obtained or owned the illegal weapons.

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Serbia is estimated to be among the top countries in Europe in guns per capita. Many are left over from the wars of the 1990s and held illegally.

Other anti-gun measures are to include stricter controls of gun owners and shooting ranges.

The country’s government issued the call a month ago after two deadly mass shootings rocked Serbia in May. A 13-year-old boy gunned down nine students and a security guard at a Belgrade school on May 3. Just a day later, a 21-year-old man opened fire in a drive-by attack that killed eight in the town of Mladenovac.

The officials say that around three quarters of a million legally owned weapons are in Serbia. From machine guns to World War II relics and rare collector pieces, everything was there, including a 1930s Luger with a picture of Lenin on one side and Tito on the other side of the handgrip.

Yet, most of those are in the possession of sports clubs, shooting ranges, and private security companies. The number of illegal weapons is hard to know.

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The gun culture is deeply rooted in Serbian tradition, as we were told at one of Belgrade’s famous shooting ranges. But people there support the government’s crackdown on illegal gun owners.

“To own a gun, just for the sake of owning it, or because of our tradition and culture is wrong. Particularly mines, explosives, and automatic weapons. It is absolutely wrong to own any of that,” Ljubiša Životić, a shooting instructor from Shooting Club ‘Target’ said.

But they say that those who legally own guns are rarely the source of gun violence, as most of it is committed with illegally acquired firearms.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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