Weapons Act « will have to be checked »

After the killing spree in Graz, Austria’s Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen questioned relatively liberal weapons law. «Is the legal situation really that it meets modern requirements? That will have to be checked, »said the head of the state, according to a report by the press agency APA on Wednesday in Graz. A 21 -year -old man killed nine young people and a teacher the day before in his former school. The Austrian attacker committed suicide. He was armed with a shotgun and a fist firearm. According to the police, he had both owned both.

Politicians would now devote themselves to the question of « how it can be that a 21-year-old has short and long weapon and has the opportunity to buy the corresponding ammunition and to set up this mischief, » said former Greens boss van der Bellen to journalists.

Previously, the Mayor of Graz, Graz, Elke Kahr and a Parliamentarian of the Greens, had called for a weapons ban for private individuals. In Austria, however, an official approval is necessary for the acquisition of fist fir weapons – but not for rifles and shotguns.