Incidents and Gun Crimes
In 2007 there were 836 criminal acts and 5428 misdemeanors committed with use of firearms.
It is generally not common for licensed gun owners to commit violent crimes with their guns, and most of the gun crimes are committed with illegal weapons that are beyond the control of the law. Occasionally crimes with legally owned guns do happen. The famous example is the so-called "Forest killer" Viktor Kalivoda, who was planning to go on a killing spree in Prague Metro. Ultimately, he randomly murdered two people in a forest and another man four days later in another forest about 200 km from the first killing in 2005; both with his legally owned Glock. Police captured Kalivoda week after, thus preventing further murders. Kalivoda was sentenced to life imprisonment. While in prison, he committed suicide in 2010.
The number of murders committed with legally owned guns reached its peak in 2000, when 20 people were murdered. There were 16 murders committed with legally owned guns in 2003, 17 in 2007 and 2 in 2010. The majority of them are committed during family quarrels, with only a minimum being premeditated.
On Oct 9th 2008 there was an incident at a party of a Czech politician and former prime minister Jiří Paroubek, where his acquaintance Bohumír Ďuričko shot Václav Kočka junior, the son of a Prague businessman, with his legally carried gun after a short quarrel. Ďuričko later claimed he was acting in self-defense after Kočka attacked his pregnant girlfriend. According to the eyewitness testimony it seems highly unlikely. In April 2009, Bohumír Ďuričko was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison.
Read more about this topic: Gun Politics In The Czech Republic
Famous quotes containing the words incidents, gun and/or crimes:
“An element of exaggeration clings to the popular judgment: great vices are made greater, great virtues greater also; interesting incidents are made more interesting, softer legends more soft.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“We got our new rifled muskets this morning. They are mostly old muskets, many of them used, altered from flint-lock to percussion ... but the power of the gun was fully as great as represented. The ball at one-fourth mile passed through the largest rails; at one-half mile almost the same.... I think it an excellent arm.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“It may be impossible to have a revolution without crimes but that does not make revolution a crime.”
—José Bergamín (1895–1983)