Gun ownership and use in South Eastern Europe is mainly related to a general belief of unsecurity, which requires protection with guns. People’s behaviours involving guns, and their perceptions of guns, have also to do with the relatively widespread availability of weapons, weak and ineffective law enforcement in this regard. The modern local culture tends also to associate guns with masculinity, with a rather positive perception given to armed business people, politicians and even criminals.

It is also partly due to cultural practices and beliefs, in some localized areas. Celebratory gunfire for events such as a birth or a marriage have historical roots in the mountainous areas of the peninsula (parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Northern Albania).

More info

seesac.org - South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC)