According to the data of the world research for small arms from 2018, it is estimated that there were 2.720.000 weapons in the possession of civilians in Serbia at that time. Of these, 1.186.000 are registered and 1.533.000 are unregistered. When it comes to the number of firearms per capita (civilian), according to the website World population review 2023, Serbia ranks fifth in the world, with an index of 39,1 per hundred people. It is important to note that Serbia is the only European country in the top five rankings
The murder of eight students and a school guard at the "Vladislav Ribnikar" Elementary School in Vračar, as well as the mass shooting in the villages near Mladenovac just one day later, in which eight people were killed and fourteen were wounded, confirmed the long-known thesis that firearms are rarely used by anyone saved, but took the lives of many. Immediately after the tragedies, promises were heard that the state would deal with the problem of widespread firearms in the hands of private individuals.
Firearms are only a means of committing a crime, its overrepresentation and easy availability, both legally and illegally, are facilities for the crime to be committed. Neither in Vračar, nor in Mladenovac, nor in other mass murders in Serbia, domestic violence, femicides, nor any violence of a private context, is the main culprit the availability and spread of firearms, but the long-term normalization of violence. While it is a topic for psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists and others, this text will still deal with firearms, as a tool, which certainly has a significant role in the tragedies that befell Serbia.
BLACK STATISTICS
What is worrisome when it comes to the use of firearms is the data of the Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons for Southeast and Eastern Europe (SISAK), established within the UNDP. Namely, this year there were more deaths caused by the use of firearms in a private context than in criminal confrontations. The private context includes domestic violence, femicides, public disputes, as well as mass shootings where the victims are chosen at random, i.e. everything that is not related to crime. When comparing the total number of private context incidents and criminal confrontations, the number is about the same. Although some widely accepted synonym for firearms was crime, it turns out that in practice it is not quite like that.
In 2022, the total number of private context incidents in which firearms were used is also similar to the number of criminal confrontations. The same applies to the previous year. We should bear in mind the limitations of these statistics, considering that most of them came from media texts, and very little from official institutions, which means that the total number could be higher. There is also an almost equal number of incidents where the context is not defined, but it is likely that most of them are not in a criminal context, given that they are mostly mapped as such.
Data from the same database for monitoring violence committed with firearms with a fatal outcome provide similar findings for the entire region under observation (Western Balkans and Moldova). Namely, the number of deaths associated with family violence, public disputes and other non-criminal contexts is higher than murders with firearms in criminal confrontations. When looking at the countries of the region individually, it can be seen that Serbia leads in most statistics.
According to UNDP data published at the beginning of 2022 in the publication on domestic violence, the number of domestic violence incidents committed with firearms in Serbia in the period from 2017 to 2020 is almost always in favor of legal weapons. The biggest difference was in 2017, when legally issued weapons were used in 83 percent of cases. On the other hand, it is interesting to note that many more incidents involving firearms in domestic violence were recorded in urban than in rural areas.
The same statistics say that annually, on average, about 20 percent of femicides are committed with firearms. In most cases it is also about legal.
photo: tanjug / mup serbia...
HOW MUCH IS THERE?
According to information from the Ministry of Internal Affairs from 2016, almost a million firearms owned by civilians were registered in Serbia. This, of course, only applies to legal possessions, that is, to weapons for which a permit has been issued. For the second, illegal, there are of course no exact numbers of how many are in circulation, but everything is based on estimates. More than legal anyway. Of these almost one million, according to the data of the time, about 270 thousand were pistols and revolvers, 450 thousand pieces of hunting weapons and about 90 thousand examples of sports weapons.
During his address to the nation after two mass shootings, the President of the Republic, Aleksandar Vučić, stated that in Serbia, approximately 400 civilians currently have registered firearms. He emphasized that after the tightening of measures and the revision, in Serbia "there will be no more than 30, 40 thousand weapons" in civilian hands. Milan Andrić, police colonel and assistant state secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia, said on Monday, as a guest on K1 television, that he currently has about "766 thousand pieces" of firearms, which, he said, is less than in 2015, when there were "900 thousands". Andrić added that out of 400 people who have registered weapons, 211 of them have those for personal security, they are pistols and revolvers.
On the other hand, the data of the world research for small arms from 2018 estimate that there were 2.720.000 weapons in the possession of civilians in Serbia at that time. Of these, 1.186.000 are registered and 1.533.000 are unregistered. When it comes to the number of firearms per capita (civilian), according to the World population review website, Serbia ranks fifth in the world in 2023, with an index of 39,1 per hundred people. It is important to note that Serbia is the only European country in the top five rankings.
photo: fonet / mup serbia...
HOW TO GET WEAPONS
The Law on Weapons and Ammunition in Serbia stipulates that weapons are divided into four categories. The UA category, from which natural persons cannot acquire weapons, includes mine-explosive devices, automatic short and long firearms, weapons hidden in other objects and firearms with a silencer. Category B is intended for civilians, which includes all firearms (short, long, semi-automatic, repeating, single-shot, double-shot, with hollow and smooth barrels), except those from categories A and C and convertible weapons. The third type includes disabled firearms, old weapons and their modern copies that do not use a center or rimfire bullet, as well as air weapons. Weapons from category C can be freely acquired in the cases stipulated by the Law on Arms and Ammunition, and kept with a report to the competent authority. Category D includes melee weapons, gas sprays, tasers and certain air weapons.
When a natural person wants to acquire a category B firearm, he must prove the justification of the reason for the acquisition. They have three options: threatened personal safety, hunting or sports competitions. In addition, persons must meet a number of other conditions including an adequate place to keep it, which is a metal safe or a safe with a code. The Assistant Secretary of the Interior Ministry, Dušan Andrić, said during the guest appearance that the police, during the check, will not give a permit in the event that someone shows a "locked wooden closet". The prescribed procedure in itself is strict, however, it is hard to believe that all the 400 people being talked about have strictly defined conditions for detention. And in the case of the murder at the school in Vračar, the method of holding the weapon was not adequate. Despite the boy's father claiming that the weapon was under lock and key according to regulations, it turned out that the owner was not the only one who had the key.
The researcher of the Belgrade Center for Security Policy (BCBP) Bojan Elek explains to "Vreme" that the announced tightening of the Law can only lead to a counter-effect, that is, to the fact that a lot of people who want to have weapons will be "driven into illegality". Also, as he says, the problem is that, in practice, police officers do not carry out occasional checks on the way weapons are kept, but only upon report, "which should be regular", but "there is no capacity" for such a thing.
Elek believes that it is "hard to believe" that 400 people legally need to own a gun and adds that "it is more a question of assessment on the ground as policemen decide". As he says, "for sure there are some omissions, especially at the bar", where the person may even know a policeman "who comes to him once and never again".
Although the weapon must not be loaded, the ammunition can be kept in the same box. Also, there is no limit for its acquisition, and persons who wish to acquire five or more firearms can get relief because they will be subject to a "collector's" permit. On the other hand, the police can temporarily confiscate weapons due to domestic violence or the like, and then the administrative procedure decides whether they will be returned or permanently confiscated. Even if it is the latter, the person can submit a request for procurement again after a period of time.
There are still plenty of firearms, and those numbers that could be heard on television and on guest shows in the previous days are quite flat. If the law is tightened even more, the country risks opening a Pandora's box of illegal weapons. Also, it can happen that people start reporting that their weapons are stolen, but actually sell them on the black market, and then, if they really want to, get a new one there. The law will probably not detect them, and they will continue to possess firearms.
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