One in six Montenegrins is "legally armed"

Source: Tanjug

PODGORICA -- There are 100,909 registered pieces of firearms in Montenegro - a country that has some 625,000 citizens.

(FoNet, file)

However, the police there assume that the number of illegal weapons is "much higher", according to reports.
The Montenegrin Interior Ministry (MUP) "unfortunately has no data" on this, Tanja Knežević-Perišić, an adviser to the minister, said.

But she also noted that illegal weapons are assumed to outnumber those properly registered, and described this as "the main problem".

Last year the police in Montenegro confiscated a total of 627 firearms - only 175 of this number was in illegal possession.

The local media in Podgorica quoted Knežević-Perišić as saying that "it was not rare" for minors to possess weapons.

This official explained that "in most cases", those weapons were illegal.