Montenegrins Urged to Hand Over Weapons After Mass Shootings Rock Serbia

Montenegrin Interior Minister Filip Adzic at the government session in Podgorica. Photo: Government of Montenegro

On May 3, a seventh-grade pupil shot dead a school security worker and eight pupils in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, while six other pupils and a history teacher were injured.

A second mass shooting, which killed eight people and wounded 13, followed on May 4, in the villages of Dubona and Malo Orasje.

"Montenegrin citizens can freely and voluntarily hand over arms in legal or illegal possession to the police without any legal consequences. On a special phone line citizens can also report anonymously if they know someone possesses illegal weapons," Adzic said.

On May 8, Serbia's Interior Ministry said citizens could hand over arms before June 8 without any legal consequences.

On May 5, President Aleksandar Vucic 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.

Vucic said there were some 766,665 legal weapons in Serbia, of which around 33 per cent were pistols and revolvers.

Montenegrin minister without portfolio Zoran Miljanic said on May 4 that 52,340 Montenegrin citizens have weapons in legal possession, stressing there could be up to 80,000 more illegal weapons in the country of 620,000 citizens.

"According to some international surveys, Montenegro shares third and fourth place with Serbia in terms of the number of permits issued to citizens in the world. It should be a warning for the authorities," Miljanic told television Vijesti.

According to Montenegro's Interior Ministry, since February 2015 people have voluntarily returned 2,011 firearms, 291 hand grenades, 1,118 weapon parts, and...