Teenage boy kills 8 children, guard at school in Belgrade
New York PostMay 03, 2023
According to Serbia's interior ministry, a deadly school shooting in the capital city of Belgrade Wednesday killed at least eight students and a security guard, with another six pupils and a teacher taken to the hospital with injuries.
Belgrade police arrested the 14-year-old suspect who allegedly used his father’s weapons to carry out the attack on the Vladislav Ribnikar school. Head of Belgrade police, Veselin Milic, said the shooter preplanned the entire attack and was armed with two guns and two petrol bombs.
Despite having some of the world’s highest gun ownership rates, mass shootings are exceedingly rare in Serbia. Today’s tragedy at the Vladislav Ribnikar is the country’s first mass shooting in a decade, despite years of warnings about the number of weapons left over from the 1990s wars. The school shooting in Belgrade is a tragedy of the highest order — it is thankfully an extraordinarily rare occurrence in the Balkan nation, and any correlation to "mass shooting trends" should be taken with caution.
While Serbia may have very high gun ownership rates, its gun laws are very strict when compared to countries like the US. To obtain a gun permit in Serbia, a person must go through a thorough background check and be medically examined every five years. Not only must Serbians be clear of any criminal history and mental disorders to obtain a firearm, but they also face a much more extensive process to get a concealed carry permit. These laws will hopefully continue to help prevent future tragedies like this one.