A minimum of 14 folks had been killed and one other 25 injured after a gunman opened fireplace on Thursday at Charles College in Prague, in accordance with native police.
The taking pictures, in a rustic the place gun violence is uncommon, is the nation’s deadliest in trendy historical past. “It’s a horrible crime, one thing the Czech Republic has by no means skilled,” mentioned Czech Inside Minister Vit Rakusan on Tuesday.
Worldwide firearm harm prevention group Gunpolicy.org experiences that, in 2019—the final 12 months with accessible gun violence knowledge on their web site—there have been 195 whole gun deaths within the Czech Republic, a rustic of 10.8 million folks. In 2018, the quantity stood at 170, and the 12 months earlier than that, there have been 174 deaths. Against this, the USA has reported greater than 15,000 firearm deaths in 2019, excluding suicides, in accordance with the Gun Violence Archive.
Gun legal guidelines within the Czech Republic are usually lax in comparison with different European nations, although residents nonetheless need to cross a multi-part take a look at, background test and well being clearance to acquire a firearm.
Czech authorities revealed the gunman concerned in Thursday’s taking pictures legally owned a number of weapons. They added that the act was premeditated, calling it a “effectively thought out, horrible act,” per the AP. Police haven’t launched details about the suspect’s connection to any terrorist group, or a attainable motive.
Previous to Thursday, the nation’s deadliest mass mass taking pictures in trendy historical past was in 2015, when a shooter took eight lives earlier than fatally taking pictures himself. A minimum of one different mass killing has occurred since, when a gunman killed six folks in a hospital ready room in 2019, in accordance with Reuters.
Gun legal guidelines within the Czech Republic
There are greater than 1 million registered weapons within the Czech Republic, in accordance with 2022 police knowledge. The Czech Republic has the constitutional proper to bear arms and permits residents to hold hid weapons for self-defense, although the method for truly acquiring a weapon entails a number of steps.
A few of the requirements to acquire a gun license range. Everybody has to endure a background and well being test, although police can decide to take somebody’s weapon away if they seem to have psychological well being issues. (That regulation was handed after the 2015 mass taking pictures. The gunman had proven indicators of psychological well being points prior.)
Folks should additionally take a a number of alternative query quiz—of which 30 questions are taken from a attainable 501 that individuals can examine from. The take a look at could also be kind of troublesome for some based mostly on the kind of license they need to receive. As an example, people who find themselves trying to get their hid carry license can solely get one query incorrect, which means that about 2 in 5 folks don’t cross, the Washington Publish experiences.
Following the written portion of the take a look at, residents even have to indicate that they will shoot a firearm effectively. They’ve to have the ability to describe the totally different components of the gun for the examination and present that they know methods to safely retailer their weapon. Individuals are additionally not allowed to personal weapons if they’ve a felony file.
Stories present a slight improve in acquiring a gun license within the nation since Russia first invaded Ukraine, however with such precautions in place, gun violence continues to be extremely uncommon.
“We at all times thought that this was a factor that didn’t concern us,” Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda mentioned to Czech Tv. “Now it seems that, sadly, our world can also be altering and the issue of the person shooter is rising right here as effectively.”