Belgrade school massacre

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A 13-year-old boy gunned down eight fellow pupils and a security guard in a Belgrade school on Wednesday in a planned attack, prompting Serbia's president to announce tougher curbs on gun ownership.

Using two handguns that belonged to his father, the boy fired first at the guard and three girls in a hallway and then shot his teacher and classmates in a history lesson, police said. The teacher and six pupils were hospitalised, some with life-threatening injuries.

Veselin Milic, head of Belgrade police, said the attacker had two guns and two petrol bombs and had planned everything carefully. "He even had ... names of children he wanted to kill and their classes," he told a press conference.

Gun ownership is widespread in Serbia, which has witnessed several mass shootings over the past decade, and President Aleksandar Vucic said checks would be stepped up.

As Serbia prepared for three days of national mourning, Vucic announced a moratorium on new gun licenses other than for hunting, revision of existing permits and surveillance of shooting ranges and how civilians store their weapons. School shootings are rare.

The shooter, who gave himself up to police and at 13 is below Serbia's age of criminal responsibility, will be placed in a psychiatric institution, Vucic told reporters, adding that both his father and mother had been arrested.

"He was waiting for this day. He was at the shooting range with his father three times," Vucic said. The boy had asked for a transfer to another class where he had three friends, he said.

Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic said the suspect's father, had held the guns legally. Hundreds of thousands of weapons remain unaccounted for in Serbia after the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

"(The boy) ... first shot the teacher and then he started shooting randomly," parent Milan Milosevic told broadcaster N1. Milosevic's daughter was in the classroom when the attacker burst in, but she escaped.

Gun laws are very strict in Serbia but civilian gun ownership is also widespread.

According to the 2018 Small Arms Survey, Serbia globally ranked third with 39.1 firearms per 100 people, and more than 78,000 people have hunting licences.

The survey estimate includes many weapons held illegally since the wars and unrest of the 1990s, despite authorities having issued several amnesties for owners to hand in or register illicit guns.

In the deadliest shooting in Serbia since then, a 60-year-old man killed 14 people in 2013. Other mass shootings occurred in 2007, 2015 and 2016. All the assailants were adults.

Strange how none of these shootings happen in the UK where we have tight gun controls. Funny that...

"Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way," along with knifings and acid attacks.
https://news.sky.com/story/fatal-stabbi ... n-12806729

Strange how none of these shootings happen in the UK where we have tight gun controls. Funny that...

The shooter, who gave himself up to police and at 13 is below Serbia's age of criminal responsibility, will be placed in a psychiatric institution, Vucic told reporters, adding that both his father and mother had been arrested.

Guns have nothing to do with mass shootings, it's all the fault of something else.

"Can you tell us about this something else?"

Erm... no.

Which is some kinda crazy that there's no such thing as criminal offences for people under a certain age - not even charged as a "Young Offender," or minor or whatever like here in Canada/USA where young people typically avoid the harshest penalties and can have their records scrubbed once they turn 18 as long as they behave themselves, that sort of thing. Instead, it seems there's no such thing as a criminal charge for anyone under X age there. Very strange.

The Criminal Code, section 13, states "No person shall be convicted of an offence in respect of an act or omission on their part while that person was under the age of twelve years."

A friend was over yesterday who is an extremely responsible gun owner and his comments about the USA's gun violence problems with mass shootings and such is that it isn't the guns, it's the people. The guns are just tools, it's the people there's something wrong with if they're shooting each other.. my counterpoint was that it's the extremely easy access to guns for almost all people, no back ground checks, gun show loop holes so there's no waiting periods nothing - just you want a gun here ya go. Not like here where there's quite a process to go through to be authorized to buy & transport a gun.

Just doesn't make logical sense that all these things can keep happening w/o the guns. Sure, in the hands of the wrong people.. but, with their "rights," to have easier access to guns than air to breathe, what exactly do people expect the outcome is going to be? When you just keep adding guns to the mix until there are more guns than people, many of those guns are going to end up in hands that should never hold one.

Canada is actually very similar, to quote:



So literally, the difference between Serbia and Canada in this regard is 24 months.

One has to be older than 11 to be charged, that's who the Youth Criminal Justice Act is intended for - minor teenagers, not children below 12.

It's both, American style gun rights could work in a society that respects personal responsibility. That's just not the society Americans have.

It doesn't really matter that it could work hypothetically though, because it's demonstrably failed in practice. That said, apparently they don't view daily mass shootings as a failure so, who are we to insist they change course? Americans need to fix their problems for themselves and apparently, this is fine.

Aaah. I guess it's just pretty rare for kids to commit actual serious criminal acts as this isn't a thing I've ever heard of. Some s**thead little kids, yes, but not one that shot up a bunch of people.

what does it say that i was surprised this wasn't in the US

If we had America's gun problem, we'd probably already have had these concerns collide.

It's not completely unthinkable, but I'd also hope a <14 year old kid who commits that sort of crime is referred for help, not treated like any other murderer.*

*depends.

There are some people that are just born evil and broken. If they act on it at a young age, are evaluated and determined to be one of these rare types of humans, then lock them up and throw away the key so they can't murder a bunch more people.