Two massacres in Serbia in less than 96 hours, they caused a strong shock in the international community, not to mention the Balkan country itself.

“We will begin almost complete disarmament,” the Serbian president said. Alexander Vucic at a press conference he gave, implying that the root of the problem lies in the high level of gun ownership, as well as the illegal use of weapon in the country, with many international media covering this view directly.

In an attempt to find out the causes of the two tragic incidents, “K” spoke to a political scientist, journalist and youth worker in Serbia. Everyone agreed that weapons are just part of a larger, much dirtier and more complex social problem that no one wants to single out and isolate.

Culture of Violence

OUR Serjan Sweetspolitical scientist and chairman of the International Advisory Committee of the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, explains that these two massacres may be the first such public acts of violence in Serbia, but in the last decade in the country domestic violence took her epidemic formand also increased sharply femicides. At the same time, he describes, there were many incidents school bullying but also youth suicides. “Two incidents took place in such an atmosphere. The country was like a pressure cooker with the lid torn off,” he emphasizes.

As the main reason for these phenomena, Mr. Sweets named culture of violence, both in the media and in the political rhetoric of Serbia. “I believe that the mass shootings are largely the result of increased propaganda of violence in the media over the past 10 years. Violence is promoted on a daily basis in these media, which receive public money to promote culture and write about programs and reality shows in which rapes and beatings took place.”

“I have lived in many countries abroad and nowhere have I seen such a normalization of violence.”

“Nude women, weapons, luxury goods and fame – that’s what the media is singing about. Being famous is very important. Be a hero, even if you’re an anti-hero,” adds Drazen Zakerowho works as a youth counselor for non-governmental organizations.

“In one of these shows, 15 days ago, a criminal appeared. I have lived in many foreign countries and have never seen such a normalization of violence. Many reporters in the international media highlight the presence of gun ownership, and indeed, Serbia has high rates, but this is only part of the big picture,” Mr. Sviy stressed.

700,000 guns in legal private possession

According to the editor-in-chief of the Vreme weekly, Philip Swam, in Serbia, 700,000 weapons are legally owned by private individuals. “Even with such a huge amount of guns, we don’t have a high crime rate when it comes to gun use. The main weapon in the killings of women, for example, is a knife, only 30% of them involved firearms,” he emphasizes, stating that he does not link these two incidents to the high level of gun ownership in Serbia. However, he elaborates that if the father of the particular student in the first incident at the school did not have a weapon, his child certainly would not have used it.

“Gun ownership certainly does not help, but we should not focus only on this aspect,” emphasizes Mr. Sweets. He notes that international media and analysts are still inclined to view what is happening in Serbia always in the light of the war and the illegal arms trade that flourished during the war years and after it. “We are about a quarter of a century from the last war that was in Serbia. The culture of gun ownership prevails in the Balkans long before the wars of the 90s, but we did not have the phenomena of massacres before.

Drazen Zasero on the same wavelength: “We have strict rules regarding the possession and use of weapons. Organized crime as well as negative media standards have a negative impact on young people.”

Economic issues and political rhetoric

He also spoke about the economic situation in the country. “We live on the edge of the EU, where everything is better, and there is always confusion that our neighbors live better than us. The family here is struggling to make ends meet, leaving them unable to devote much time to their children who are “raised” by the media and social media like Tik Tok,” says Mr. Zakero. The result, as he points out, juveniles are uncritically exposed to patterns of violence.

He also describes how they have a wild capitalism in their country, different from Western countries, which causes anxiety and anxiety. insulationbut also the feeling in the world that his voice is not heard. All this creates fertile ground for such behavior.

The country has an extremely liberal policy, argues political scientist Sergean Swiis, who blames the government for not taking enough action on all of the above phenomena, but also blames it for the rhetoric used. “The government feeds on a culture of violence and the polarization of society. At the political level, there has been a perpetuation of nationalist rhetoric since this particular party was elected in 2012. politically incorrect, extremely right-wing speech And hate speech they are the dominant elements in the public sphere,” he notes, adding that they in turn contribute to toxic masculinity.

Mr. Svich opposes the Vučić government’s response to the two incidents. “The measures they propose don’t solve the problem, it’s basically PR to show that they are doing something,” he noted, specifically referring to proposal to restore the death penalty which the President proposed, but, as he said, the Prime Minister refused.