Serbians Hand Over Firearms, Ammo, After ‘Almost Total Disarmament’ Enacted

Serbians have begun handing over firearms, ammunition, and “pieces of mines and explosive devices” following President Aleksandar Aleksandar Vučić’s May 5 announcement of “almost total disarmament.”

The Washington Post reported that nearly “6,000 unregistered weapons, 300,000 rounds of ammunition, and 470 pieces of mines and explosive devices have been voluntarily surrendered” so far this week.

Serbia’s Ministry of the Interior used a May 11, 2023, Instagram post to say, “Surrender your weapons!”

Reuters noted that an amnesty period to hand over firearms to authorities began on Monday.

The Serbian gun control push comes after two mass shootings, one carried out by a seventh grader and a second by a terrorist, earlier this month.

The first of the two shootings occurred on the morning of May 3 when a seventh grader with two handguns opened fire in a school. Eight students and a security guard were killed in the attack.

The The New York Times noted that the seventh grader also had four Molotov cocktails. Belgrade police chief Veselin Miljic indicated the seventh grader had “planned the execution of this criminal offense for a long period of time.”

The second shooting occurred May 4, when a man opened fire on members of the public from inside his car, killing eight and wounding 14.

Reuters pointed out this is not the first time the Serbian government has demanded its citizens hand over their guns. There have been other gun amnesties enacted “over [the] past two decades” in which “people handed over banned military-grade arms, hunting weapons, handguns, and also barrels, locking mechanisms and other parts.”