Austria's chancellor vows to toughen gun laws after a deadly school shooting

VIENNA -- Austria volition toughen its weapon laws, its chancellor said Monday, aft a 21-year-old erstwhile student killed 9 students and a teacher astatine his schoolhouse past week successful what's considered the Alpine country's deadliest post-war attack.

The shooting had sparked a statement astir Austria's weapon laws, which are among the much wide successful the European Union. The assailant successful Graz used a shotgun and a pistol which helium owned legally, constabulary said soon aft the attack.

“Access to weapons indispensable beryllium regulated adjacent much responsibly successful Austria,” Christian Stocker said during a code successful Parliament successful Vienna.

The caller laws volition see “stricter eligibility requirements for weapon ownership and restrictions for definite hazard groups,” the chancellor said, adding that data-sharing betwixt the antithetic authorities would beryllium improved arsenic well.

“In the future, wherever an idiosyncratic hazard concern is identified, consequences nether firearms instrumentality indispensable beryllium drawn automatically,” Stocker said.

The chancellor said his Cabinet would walk the caller measures aboriginal this week but didn't springiness immoderate further details.

However, connected Saturday, Stocker told nationalist broadcaster ORF that toughening the laws could see raising the minimum property for weapon buyers.

In the schoolhouse shooting Tuesday astatine the BORG Dreierschützengasse precocious schoolhouse successful Graz, 9 students were killed — six girls and 3 boys aged betwixt 14 and 17 — arsenic good arsenic a teacher. Another 11 radical were wounded. The attacker killed himself successful a bath of his erstwhile school.

Traditionally, galore successful Austria clasp weapons, which they often usage to spell hunting successful the Alpine country’s immense forests. In general, it’s much communal to transportation a limb for that and little for self-defense.

According to the Small Arms Survey, Austria ranks 12th successful the satellite erstwhile it comes to holding civilian firearms, with 30 firearms per 100 residents. That’s acold little than successful the U.S. which tops the ranking with 120 firearms per 100 residents, but much than Austria’s neighbour Germany, which ranked 23rd with 19 firearms per 100 residents.

In Austria, immoderate weapons, specified arsenic rifles and shotguns that indispensable beryllium reloaded manually aft each shot, tin beryllium purchased from the property of 18 without a permit. Gun dealers lone request to cheque if there’s nary weapons prohibition connected the buyer, and the limb is added to the cardinal weapons register.

Other weapons, specified arsenic repeating shotguns oregon semi-automatic firearms, are much hard to acquire. Buyers request a weapon ownership paper and a firearms pass.

Austria Press Agency has reported that the fishy had a weapon ownership card, but this papers simply entitles a holder to get and possess, but not to transportation weapons specified arsenic the handgun. That limb besides would person required a firearm pass.

In his code connected Monday, the chancellor besides announced that each schools successful the state would get much semipermanent psychological enactment for students and that constabulary would summation their beingness successful beforehand of schools until the extremity of the schoolhouse twelvemonth this summer.

In addition, Stocker said, the authorities volition make a compensation money “that volition marque it imaginable to help the affected families quickly and unbureaucratically — for illustration with ceremonial costs, intelligence attraction oregon different urgently needed enactment services.”

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Grieshaber reported from Berlin.