The Belgrade school shooting in 2023 and the Serbian Government's response within the framework of legal and education systems

On May 3, 2023, Serbia, a country with strict gun regulations, was confronted for the first time with a mass shooting, which took place at an elite school in the capital Belgrade. After the shooting, the Serbian Government introduced measures to prevent such incidents from happening again. This chapter analyzes the measures, focusing on two questions: 1) What did the country, which already has strict gun regulations, established MACR at the level of most European countries, and police presence in schools, do when it was confronted with a school shooting for the first time; and 2) Have the measures of the same content proven effective in current practice in the countries where they were implemented? In this context, the measures introducing innovations in the Serbian legal and education systems are analyzed and the results of previous studies, especially the experiences in European countries and the United States, are discussed in this chapter.