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WTF is this world coming to 
Eight children and a security guard have been killed after a 14-year-old boy opened fire on his teacher and other students in a school shooting in Serbia, the country's interior ministry has said.
The teenager has been named by police as seventh-grade student Kosta Kecmanovic.
Officers have said he used his father's gun for the attack at the Vladislav Ribnikar elementary school in the capital Belgrade.
Milan Nedeljkovic, mayor of the central Vracar district where the school is located, said the teacher is fighting for her life after being shot.
Six children who were injured are also being treated with one of them, a girl, in a life-threatening condition.
Meanwhile, body bags have been seen being carried out of the school following the tragedy.
The Serbian government has announced three days of mourning from 5 to 7 May and classes will start with a minute's silence when they resume tomorrow.
Eight children and a security guard have been killed after a 14-year-old boy opened fire on his teacher and other students in a school shooting in Serbia, the country's interior ministry has said.
The teenager has been named by police as seventh-grade student Kosta Kecmanovic.
Officers have said he used his father's gun for the attack at the Vladislav Ribnikar elementary school in the capital Belgrade.
Milan Nedeljkovic, mayor of the central Vracar district where the school is located, said the teacher is fighting for her life after being shot.
Six children who were injured are also being treated with one of them, a girl, in a life-threatening condition.
Meanwhile, body bags have been seen being carried out of the school following the tragedy.
The Serbian government has announced three days of mourning from 5 to 7 May and classes will start with a minute's silence when they resume tomorrow.
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Must be thousands of guns still around in the Balkans so always a real dander something like this will happen.
Tragic nonetheless. Poor Parents, what an ordeal.
Tragic nonetheless. Poor Parents, what an ordeal.
Serbia's citizens are stockpiling more guns than in any other European country. Most come from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and are still used to commit crimes today.
Historic gun culture
No one knows just how many illegal weapons Serbians are hiding in their homes. Even authorities give vague estimates, ranging anywhere from 200,000 to 900,000. Experts suggest that those numbers are conservative. The weapons concerned are handguns, assault rifles, bombs - even anti-tank grenades. Add to that another 1 million legally registered sport and hunting firearms, as well as yet another 1 million weapons in the hands of the army, police and private security companies. The internet portal gunpolicy.org estimates that the United States is the only country in the world that has more guns per capita than Serbia.
Most of the weapons are leftovers from the bloody wars that raged in the 1990s after the fall of Yugoslavia - in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Not even the regular armies bothered to bureaucratically administer the inventories of their arsenals back then. When violence erupted, mercenaries and those with a desire to fight arrived on the scene, and no questions were asked. After the wars, some 4 million illegal guns were said to have remained in circulation in the seven republics of the former Yugoslavia - most of them in Serbia.
"There is a long-established gun culture here," says Predrag Petrovic from the Belgrade Center for Security Policy (BCSP), a Serbian NGO. "One sees it at celebrations, where people regularly shoot into the air. Guns are still thought of as status symbols, as a sign of power." The instability of the region has fueled the feeling that one need be able to defend oneself, he told DW. Petrovic also criticizes ruling conservatives in the Balkans, whom he says have been promoting a "delusion of persecution" - spreading rumors of suspected foreign agents or the threat of government overthrow in order to mobilize their voters. "That all scares people," he says.
'Do you want an unarmed citizenry?'
A poll conducted by another Belgrade NGO, the Public Policy Research Center, found that 70 percent of Serbs in fact felt safe in their homeland. Not because they believed the country's institutions or security apparatus would protect them, but because they felt that they themselves, neighbors or friends could. "Of course people should be able to have guns, too bad we can't have more of them. Do you want an unarmed and defenseless citizenry, so you can do whatever you want with them?" read a recent comment from a reader at DW's Serbian Facebook page. Hundreds more comments were of a similar opinion.
Yet the news tells a different story: One searches in vain to find examples of people successfully fending off attackers or stopping crimes with handguns. Rather, one sees daily tabloid headlines and lots of stories about murders and occasional shooting sprees. In July, an incident in the northern Serbian village of Zitiste shocked the nation: A jealous husband killed his ex-wife and four others in a bar, injuring another 22 people in the process. Had he not had an illegal firearm at home, the night certainly would not have been so gruesome. But he did - and that firearm was an AK-47 assault rifle.
The Public Policy Research Center used media reports to study 400 cases of firearms misuse in Serbia. It found that illegal firearms had been used in 120 cases - six times as many as legal firearms. In other instances, researchers could not determine whether the shooter had a firearms license. "Owning a gun isn't a problem in and of itself. But guns are also used to deal with everyday disagreements," says Petrovic.
The black market is booming, too. Although a pistol may sell for as little as 100 euros ($105) in Serbia, it can bring a handsome profit if it is "exported." Several old M72 machine guns, produced by the Serbian manufacturer Zastava, were used in the Paris terror attacks in November 2015. Similar weapons can often be seen in current images from Syria - in the hands of jihadis, rebels or guerillas.
The toothless state
There have been no less than seven government initiatives to legalize guns in Serbia since 1992. In them, the state proposes a deal for its citizens: Bring in your weapons, and we won't ask where they came from. So far, success has been modest - in all, some 100,000 illegal weapons have been turned over or legalized; 83,000 of those in 2003 alone. Back then police started a major campaign against organized crime following the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Dindic. Yet, since that time it seems that Serbian citizens have felt little reason to turn over any more illegal firearms.
Predrag Petrovic points to the example of the US, where several cities and states even offer cash in exchange for weapons. Yet that has had little effect, because "those who hoard guns in order to use them at some point down the road won't turn them over under any circumstances." Petrovic says that more effort should be put into making sure that guns aren't circulated illegally in the first place. But, he adds pessimistically, "it's far too late for that as far as the military weapons are concerned."
Historic gun culture
No one knows just how many illegal weapons Serbians are hiding in their homes. Even authorities give vague estimates, ranging anywhere from 200,000 to 900,000. Experts suggest that those numbers are conservative. The weapons concerned are handguns, assault rifles, bombs - even anti-tank grenades. Add to that another 1 million legally registered sport and hunting firearms, as well as yet another 1 million weapons in the hands of the army, police and private security companies. The internet portal gunpolicy.org estimates that the United States is the only country in the world that has more guns per capita than Serbia.
Most of the weapons are leftovers from the bloody wars that raged in the 1990s after the fall of Yugoslavia - in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Not even the regular armies bothered to bureaucratically administer the inventories of their arsenals back then. When violence erupted, mercenaries and those with a desire to fight arrived on the scene, and no questions were asked. After the wars, some 4 million illegal guns were said to have remained in circulation in the seven republics of the former Yugoslavia - most of them in Serbia.
"There is a long-established gun culture here," says Predrag Petrovic from the Belgrade Center for Security Policy (BCSP), a Serbian NGO. "One sees it at celebrations, where people regularly shoot into the air. Guns are still thought of as status symbols, as a sign of power." The instability of the region has fueled the feeling that one need be able to defend oneself, he told DW. Petrovic also criticizes ruling conservatives in the Balkans, whom he says have been promoting a "delusion of persecution" - spreading rumors of suspected foreign agents or the threat of government overthrow in order to mobilize their voters. "That all scares people," he says.
'Do you want an unarmed citizenry?'
A poll conducted by another Belgrade NGO, the Public Policy Research Center, found that 70 percent of Serbs in fact felt safe in their homeland. Not because they believed the country's institutions or security apparatus would protect them, but because they felt that they themselves, neighbors or friends could. "Of course people should be able to have guns, too bad we can't have more of them. Do you want an unarmed and defenseless citizenry, so you can do whatever you want with them?" read a recent comment from a reader at DW's Serbian Facebook page. Hundreds more comments were of a similar opinion.
Yet the news tells a different story: One searches in vain to find examples of people successfully fending off attackers or stopping crimes with handguns. Rather, one sees daily tabloid headlines and lots of stories about murders and occasional shooting sprees. In July, an incident in the northern Serbian village of Zitiste shocked the nation: A jealous husband killed his ex-wife and four others in a bar, injuring another 22 people in the process. Had he not had an illegal firearm at home, the night certainly would not have been so gruesome. But he did - and that firearm was an AK-47 assault rifle.
The Public Policy Research Center used media reports to study 400 cases of firearms misuse in Serbia. It found that illegal firearms had been used in 120 cases - six times as many as legal firearms. In other instances, researchers could not determine whether the shooter had a firearms license. "Owning a gun isn't a problem in and of itself. But guns are also used to deal with everyday disagreements," says Petrovic.
The black market is booming, too. Although a pistol may sell for as little as 100 euros ($105) in Serbia, it can bring a handsome profit if it is "exported." Several old M72 machine guns, produced by the Serbian manufacturer Zastava, were used in the Paris terror attacks in November 2015. Similar weapons can often be seen in current images from Syria - in the hands of jihadis, rebels or guerillas.
The toothless state
There have been no less than seven government initiatives to legalize guns in Serbia since 1992. In them, the state proposes a deal for its citizens: Bring in your weapons, and we won't ask where they came from. So far, success has been modest - in all, some 100,000 illegal weapons have been turned over or legalized; 83,000 of those in 2003 alone. Back then police started a major campaign against organized crime following the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Dindic. Yet, since that time it seems that Serbian citizens have felt little reason to turn over any more illegal firearms.
Predrag Petrovic points to the example of the US, where several cities and states even offer cash in exchange for weapons. Yet that has had little effect, because "those who hoard guns in order to use them at some point down the road won't turn them over under any circumstances." Petrovic says that more effort should be put into making sure that guns aren't circulated illegally in the first place. But, he adds pessimistically, "it's far too late for that as far as the military weapons are concerned."
They'll need all the hidden guns when the Russians take them over as well.
Dad should be severely punished for leaving a fire arms unsecured in his home
A man has been arrested after eight died and 14 were injured in Serbia's second mass shooting in a week.
The attack occurred shortly after midnight near a village some 60km (37 miles) south of Belgrade when the shooter opened fire from a moving car.
He was arrested in the early hours of Friday morning after "an extensive search", the interior ministry said.
It comes after a boy killed nine people at a Belgrade school on Wednesday, Serbia's worst shooting in years.
President Aleksander Vucic pledged the "practical disarmament" of the country, as he announced a list of new security measures intended to improve gun control on Friday morning.
Police announced the latest arrest around 08:40 local time (07:40 BST) on Friday. The suspect - who has only been identified by his initials UB - was detained near the city of Kragujevac, the interior ministry said.
The arrest followed an extensive manhunt, which local media reported involved over 600 police officers. He was eventually found hiding at his grandfather's house, Serbian broadcaster RTS reported.
Early on Friday morning, Serbian media said that special police forces had arrived at the villages of Mladenovac and Dubona, where the latest shooting occurred.
Photos from the scene showed police officers stopping cars at checkpoints as they tried to find the gunman. A helicopter, drones and multiple police patrols were also used.
Reports on local media say the suspect - who the interior ministry said was born in 2002 - started firing at people with an automatic weapon after having an argument with a police officer in a park in Dubona on Thursday evening.
Milan Prokić, a Dubona resident, told Radio Belgrade 1 he heard shots near his house: "It's sad, regrettable, we locked ourselves in our home so [the shots] wouldn't come to us."
The man is then said to have proceeded to shoot people from a car, killing at least eight people and wounding many more.
All injured people admitted to hospital were born after the year 2000, RTS reported.
Two people aged 21 and 23 were operated on, but remain in critical condition.
Speaking at a news conference after the attack on Friday, Serbia's president said the suspect had been wearing a T-shirt with neo-Nazi symbols, but no further details were given.
President Vucic called the shooting "an attack on us all" and announced a host of new security measures, including a plan to hire 1,200 new police officers.
He also announced a ban on new gun permits, tougher penalties for illegal weapons possession and psychological checks of gun owners. He said the new laws would result in the "practical disarmament" of Serbia.
The attack occurred shortly after midnight near a village some 60km (37 miles) south of Belgrade when the shooter opened fire from a moving car.
He was arrested in the early hours of Friday morning after "an extensive search", the interior ministry said.
It comes after a boy killed nine people at a Belgrade school on Wednesday, Serbia's worst shooting in years.
President Aleksander Vucic pledged the "practical disarmament" of the country, as he announced a list of new security measures intended to improve gun control on Friday morning.
Police announced the latest arrest around 08:40 local time (07:40 BST) on Friday. The suspect - who has only been identified by his initials UB - was detained near the city of Kragujevac, the interior ministry said.
The arrest followed an extensive manhunt, which local media reported involved over 600 police officers. He was eventually found hiding at his grandfather's house, Serbian broadcaster RTS reported.
Early on Friday morning, Serbian media said that special police forces had arrived at the villages of Mladenovac and Dubona, where the latest shooting occurred.
Photos from the scene showed police officers stopping cars at checkpoints as they tried to find the gunman. A helicopter, drones and multiple police patrols were also used.
Reports on local media say the suspect - who the interior ministry said was born in 2002 - started firing at people with an automatic weapon after having an argument with a police officer in a park in Dubona on Thursday evening.
Milan Prokić, a Dubona resident, told Radio Belgrade 1 he heard shots near his house: "It's sad, regrettable, we locked ourselves in our home so [the shots] wouldn't come to us."
The man is then said to have proceeded to shoot people from a car, killing at least eight people and wounding many more.
All injured people admitted to hospital were born after the year 2000, RTS reported.
Two people aged 21 and 23 were operated on, but remain in critical condition.
Speaking at a news conference after the attack on Friday, Serbia's president said the suspect had been wearing a T-shirt with neo-Nazi symbols, but no further details were given.
President Vucic called the shooting "an attack on us all" and announced a host of new security measures, including a plan to hire 1,200 new police officers.
He also announced a ban on new gun permits, tougher penalties for illegal weapons possession and psychological checks of gun owners. He said the new laws would result in the "practical disarmament" of Serbia.
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