+4:3 Authorities struggle to curb gun ownership and legacy of war
(9 Apr 2013) SHOTLIST Pristina, Kosovo - 9 April, 2013 ++16:9++ 1. Police stopping car at vehicle check point 2. Mid of policeman asking for documentation 3. Wide of police searching back of trunk 4. Policeman searching inside of car 5. Close of machine gun, policeman in background 6. Set up shot of Baki Kelani, police spokesman 7. SOUNDBITE (Albanian) Baki Kelani, Kosovo police spokesman: "We can't really speculate on how many weapons are in the hands of the citizens. But, we can say that there are weapons they left over from the war and weapons that are smuggled. As police, one of the main objectives is to stop the use of illegal weapons and we have seized some 1,500 illegal handguns and other weapons from citizens, in recent years. But there are also instances of citizens themselves handing in weapons at the nearest police stations." 8. Masked policeman approaching desk with seized weapons 9. Close up of masked policeman checking weapons 10. Close up of handguns Sarajevo, Bosnia - 9 April, 2013 ++16:9++ 11. SOUNDBITE (Bosnian) Kerim Toholj, president of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) association in Bosnia: "These incidents, like the one in Serbia this morning, will continue to happen as long as society and authorities do not realise how big this problem is. They laugh at as, thinking that PTSD is not a real illness, but only when things like this happen do they wake up. But usually they just do everything to undermine our problems." FILE: Sarajevo, Bosnia - 22 January, 2005 ++4:3++ 12. Close up of weapons seized by NATO troops 13. Mid of seized guns on the ground 14. NATO vehicle destroying the seized weapons, driving over and crushing them 15. Close of guns being crushed 16. Mid of German NATO troops 17. Mid of guns being crushed 18. Wide of explosion destroying seized illegal weapons Zagreb, Croatia - 9 April 2013 ++16:9++ 19. Set up of professor Darko Jukic, psychiatrist 20. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) Professor Darko Jukic, psychiatrist: "It is a fact that a number of people with this illness have a low threshold of tolerance to frustration and then they react very explosively and aggressively." Pristina, Kosovo - 9 April, 2013 ++16:9++ 21. Pan from masked policeman to weapons on desk 22. Close up of hand grenades STORYLINE Questions were being asked about why a seemingly peaceful man turned on his family and neighbours in a small village in Serbia on Tuesday, killing 13 people and injuring two. Although such mass shootings are relatively rare in Serbia, weapons are readily available, mostly from the 1990s' wars in the Balkans. The wars that followed the dissolution of the Yugoslav federation took up to 200,000 lives, turned millions into refugees and left the population of the region heavily traumatised and armed to the teeth. The man on Tuesday went from house to house in the Velika Ivanca village at dawn, cold-bloodedly gunning down his mother, his son, a 2-year-old cousin and 10 other neighbours. Terrified residents said if a police patrol car hadn't shown up, they all would have been dead. After the rampage, police said suspect Ljubisa Bogdanovic, a 60-year-old who saw action in one of the bloodiest sieges of the Balkan wars, turned his gun on himself and his wife as authorities closed in. Both were in grave condition at a hospital in the Serbian capital. Although police has not yet established a motive for the crime, media reports said the suspect had a license for the handgun and police said he had lost his job last year at a wood-processing factory. There are some 38 weapons per 100 people in Serbia. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
