Serbia says 13,500 weapons collected in amnesty following mass shootings

Serbian authorities on Sunday displayed many of the 13,500 weapons people said they had handed over since the mass shootings in the country, including hand grenades, automatic weapons and anti-tank rocket launchers.

Authorities have announced a month-long amnesty period for citizens to hand in unregistered weapons or face prison terms as part of a crackdown on guns after two mass shootings that left 17 people dead, many of them children.

President Aleksandar Vucic accompanied police officials on Sunday to a display of weapons near the town of Smederevo, about 50 kilometers south of the capital, Belgrade.

Vucic said that about half of the weapons collected were illegal, while the other half were registered weapons handed in by citizens. He said the weapons would go to Serbian arms and ammunition factories for potential use by the armed forces.

“After June 8, the state will respond with repressive measures and punishment will be very strict,” he said of the post-amnesty period. “Does anyone need an automatic weapon? Or all these guns?”

Serbia is estimated to be among the highest countries in Europe for weapons per capita. Many were still fighting in the 1990s and were held illegally.

Other anti-gun measures include tighter controls on gun owners and shooting ranges.

The final shooting left 17 dead

Authorities launched a gun offensive after a 13-year-old boy on May 3 took his father’s gun and shot his classmates at an elementary school in central Belgrade. One day, a 20-year-old boy used an automatic weapon to shoot at random in a rural area south of Belgrade.

Two mass shootings left 17 dead and 21 wounded, shocking the nation and sparking calls for change in a country that has gone through decades of turmoil and crisis.

Tens of thousands of people have rallied in two protest marches in Belgrade since the shooting, demanding the resignation of government ministers and a ban on television stations that promote violent content and host war criminals and crime figures.

Vucic on Sunday rejected opposition demands for the resignation of Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic, who was also present at Sunday’s arms exhibition. But the president suggested that the government could withdraw and that he would announce early elections at a public meeting planned for May 26 in Belgrade.

“We have no intention of replacing Gasic, who is doing a good job,” Vucic said. “What did the police do?”

Opposition politicians accuse Vucic’s populist rule of inciting violence and hate speech against critics, spreading propaganda in the mainstream media and imposing autocratic rule on all institutions, which they say has caused divisions in society.

On Friday, protesters in Belgrade blocked key bridges and highways in the capital to press their demands. Protests were also held in other Serbian towns and cities, with sadness and anger over the shootings and the populist authorities.

Vucic described the blockade of the bridge as harassment, while he and other officials and the media he controlled sought to reduce the number of protesters.