Does Serbia have a gun problem?published at 14:48 British Summer Time 3 May 2023
Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor
It just takes a gun to get into the wrong hands.
In this case the two handguns used in this morning's deadly history class attack were taken from the home of the arrested boy's father, described as a well-known local radiologist.
The father, who has now been arrested by police, had legal permits for both guns.
Even though one recent report suggests gun ownership in Serbia and neighbouring Montenegro is the highest in Europe, many of those guns are illegally owned and date back to the Balkan Wars of the 1990s.
"I wouldn’t say that gun ownership is the issue here," says Bojan Elek, deputy director of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy. "The government has done quite a lot to take away all these illegal guns. There are regular amnesty campaigns and a lot of international assistance."
That does not mean that Serbia has no broader gun problem.
But it does have well-defined rules for ownership involving training - and gun violence is very low.
Added to the unprecedented nature of this attack in Serbia, this may explain the deep shock felt across the country.