Serbia on Saturday mourned the lack of 17 individuals in two mass shootings in two days, because the nation grappled with its personal tradition of weapons.
The funerals of a number of victims came about on Saturday, the second of three official days of mourning for the consecutive killings at a faculty in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, and in close by farming villages.
Thousands of Belgrade residents have already paid their respects to the victims of the primary taking pictures on Wednesday, laying flowers and lighting candles that now cowl a lot of a avenue resulting in the college, the place a 13-year-old killed eight classmates and a safety guard and wounded seven others. A day later, one other gunman raced via villages in a automobile with an assault rifle, killing eight individuals and wounding no less than 14 others.
“We can’t believe that’s happening here,” Milana Vanovac, 56, stated as she seemed on the impromptu memorials on Saturday. “We thought mass shootings were a problem for other countries, not for us.”
Serbia is grappling with a gun subject that has lengthy been poorly addressed, consultants say. The nation ranks third on the planet for gun possession together with Montenegro, with an estimated 39 firearms per 100 individuals, trailing the United States with 121 and Yemen with 53, in keeping with the 2018 Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based analysis group.
Promising to straight deal with the problem, President Aleksandar Vucic vowed sweeping adjustments to Serbia’s gun legal guidelines on Friday, saying he was aiming for the “almost complete disarmament” of the nation. Mr. Vucic stated the authorities would purpose to lower the quantity of people that legally personal weapons, excluding searching weapons, to as much as 40,000 from round 400,000.
It was an bold promise, however one which could be troublesome to satisfy in a rustic with a convention of proudly owning weapons and with huge portions of unlawful weapons which can be troublesome to trace.
The excessive fee of gun possession is essentially a legacy of the wars that got here after the breakup of Yugoslavia within the Nineteen Nineties, in addition to a “tough guy” tradition, stated Bojan Elek, the deputy director on the Belgrade Center for Security Policy. In Serbia, particularly within the countryside, he stated, weapons are used to rejoice weddings and birthdays and are thought-about a method of self-protection.
“We’re very skeptical about these newly announced measures,” Mr. Elek stated, noting that these affected would primarily be authorized gun homeowners who had been already prepared to show of their firearms. “Those who illegally own weapons won’t be affected.”
In Dubona, considered one of two farming villages south of Belgrade the place shootings occurred, residents expressed doubts in regards to the attainable disarmament of the nation — and their very own willingness to take part.
“There’s no way he can implement this,” Stefan Markovic, 29, a development employee from Dubona, stated of the Serbian president’s guarantees. “Nobody can do anything about this.”
Mr. Markovic, who misplaced a number of buddies within the taking pictures, stated the speed of gun possession was too excessive to be considerably diminished. He estimated that the majority of Dubona residents have a gun, though few have licenses. Asked if he had a gun, he smiled approvingly.
Several weapons had been discovered throughout searches of homes related to the gunman accused of finishing up the shootings on Thursday, the police stated. They included an automated rifle that was not registered, a carbine with optics, a pistol and 4 hand grenades. Mr. Markovic, who lives close to the suspect’s household house, stated the suspect’s father, a deputy colonel within the Serbian Army, had “a whole arsenal” of weapons.
The actual variety of weapons in Serbia, a small nation of 6.8 million individuals, has been troublesome to find out. Mr. Elek of the Belgrade Center for Security Policy stated the quantity had decreased over time. But there have been nonetheless roughly 2.7 million firearms in civilian fingers on the finish of 2017, with fewer than half that had been registered with the federal government, in keeping with the Small Arms Survey.
Mr. Vucic, the president, promised a full audit for gun homeowners that would come with drug and psychological exams, enhanced surveillance of taking pictures ranges and a two-year moratorium on new licenses. He additionally known as for a one-month amnesty for gun homeowners to give up unlawful weapons with out penalty, forward of extra stringent measures.
In Dubona, residents appeared hesitant about turning of their weapons in any respect. Some stated the gunman’s rampage had as an alternative persuaded them to maintain their weapons for self-protection.
“Imagine if he had come to our house and we didn’t have a gun to protect ourselves,” stated Milos Todorovic, who lives together with his household down the principle avenue of the village, the place bloodstains from the taking pictures had been nonetheless seen on Friday. “He comes to your door and kills you.”
Sitting round a backyard desk, strewn with pastries and small glasses of rakija, a fruit spirit fashionable within the Balkans, his father nodded in settlement.
Mr. Elek stated the tradition of gun possession for self-protection dated lots of of years, when populations within the area tried to withstand the Ottoman Empire. It has been additional entrenched by the legacy of two world wars and the conflicts surrounding the breakup of Yugoslavia.
He added that weapons had been additionally a part of longtime traditions which have disappeared in huge cities however stay within the countryside, with individuals firing into the air to commemorate particular events. Mr. Elek stated one such custom, throughout weddings, consisted of placing an apple on the highest of a home and taking pictures it with a gun.
In Dubona, Maria Todorovic, Mr. Todorovic’s sister, acknowledged the necessity for adjustments. “Something has to be done regarding the guns,” she stated. “Otherwise, where will it lead us?”
But she added that weapons had been so ingrained of their tradition that she typically tended to neglect how harmful they might be.
Ms. Todorovic stated she was within the household’s house backyard when the gunman began taking pictures just a few yards away. She stated she was not frightened at first. “When we heard the gunshots, we thought it was somebody celebrating a birthday.”
Source: www.nytimes.com