Gun owners across Serbia have turned in thousands of weapons as part of an amnesty program aimed at reducing the number of firearms in the hands of civilians after two mass shootings stunned the country last week, according to the government.
The shootings, one by a minor armed with his father’s pistols and the other involving an illegal firearm, prompted the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic to promise the “almost complete disarmament” of the country. Gun owners were given a one-month amnesty period to surrender illegal weapons without penalty ahead of the enactment of more stringent regulations.
A total of 17 people were killed and 21 injured in the two shootings. In the first shooting, on May 3, a seventh grader killed eight fellow students and a security guard at his school in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. In the second, a day later, eight were killed in a series of attacks in villages south of Belgrade.
In a statement posted on Instagram, the country’s interior…
This article was written by Cora Engelbrecht and originally published on www.nytimes.com