The killing of 12 people in the Montenegrin city of Cetinje on January 1 was followed by a large-scale protest and calls for ministerial resignations. Although the massacre was apparently sparked by a bar brawl and had no obvious political dimension, the public response echoes the outcry in neighbouring Serbia after similar mass shootings in 2023. 

Following a series of violent incidents across former Yugoslavia, civic activists and protesters are now calling for stricter gun control and broader societal changes to combat what they describe as a culture of violence.

In the historic town of Cetinje, 45-year-old Aco Martinovic embarked on a deadly rampage on January 1, killing 12 people – including two children – and injuring four others before taking his own life. According to Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic, the spree began with the murder of the bar owner, the owner’s children and members of Martinovic’s own family. The attacker was eventually cornered by police but ended the standoff by shooting himself.

The incident has prompted a reckoning in Montenegro. Criticism of the police response – with just nine officers patrolling Cetinje, a municipality of 15,000 residents, at the time, according to NGO reports – has added fuel to public anger. Martinovic already had a criminal record involving illegal weapons. 

NGOs such as Action for Human Rights and the Center for Women’s Rights have questioned why Cetinje, already scarred by a 2022 massacre, remains so poorly secured.

“The tragic events in Cetinje yesterday necessitate a thorough examination of the accountability and preparedness of Montenegro’s security system,” said a joint statement from the two NGOs issued after the killings. 

“We urge the authorities to clarify what has changed in Cetinje’s security system since 2022 and why the city has remained inadequately protected … It is the state’s responsibility to organise its security forces in a manner that aligns with professional standards, preventing the recurrence of the same patterns of violence,” the statement added. 

Prime Minister Milojko Spajic has described the attack as a "tsunami of violence" and pledged reforms. His proposed draft Law on Weapons includes re-verifying gun licences, auditing hunting clubs and establishing an anonymous tip-off line for reporting illegal firearms. Citizens who fail to surrender illegal guns within a two-month amnesty period will face harsh penalties.

The Cetinje massacre is not an isolated event. The Western Balkans, with its high prevalence of firearms – a legacy of the wars of the 1990s – has seen repeated mass shootings in recent years. Aside from the two mass killings in Montenegro’s Cetinje, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia have faced their own tragedies.

In 2023, Serbia was rocked by two mass shootings within days, leaving 18 people dead in total. These incidents prompted large-scale protests in Belgrade and other cities, where demonstrators accused the government of fostering a culture of violence through media and insufficient regulation. 

Despite initial efforts to tighten gun laws and an amnesty programme that led to the surrender of thousands of unregistered firearms, public dissatisfaction remained high. Protesters took to the streets repeatedly to demand stricter controls and better regulation of media promoting violence. 

Then just days after the Cetinje killings, there was another violent incident in the central Serbian city of Jagodina on January 6, Orthodox Christmas Eve, when a gunman killed one person and wounded two others in a restaurant shooting. 

According to Internal Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic, the incident began after the gunman, identified as Sasa Milosavljevic, was ejected from the tavern for being drunk and disruptive. He later returned armed with a Skorpion automatic weapon and a CZ 99 pistol, both unlicensed, and opened fire.

Croatia, too, has grappled with violence. In July 2024, a gunman killed five people in a nursing home in Daruvar. The perpetrator was a retired military policeman with a history of mental health issues. His mother, a resident of the retirement home, was one of the victims. The attack spurred President Zoran Milanovic to call for stricter gun controls and increased societal vigilance. 

“The wild, unprecedented crime in Daruvar shocked me. This is a frightening warning and a final call for all relevant institutions to do more to prevent violence in society, including stricter gun control,” he wrote on Facebook. 

Particularly shocking have been the killings within schools in the region. As well as the mass shooting in Belgrade, a knife attack in a Zagreb elementary school in December further intensified debates about school security and mental health services. The attacker, who was undergoing psychiatric treatment, was apprehended near the scene and treated for self-inflicted injuries. Schools across Croatia are now required to lock their entrances during lessons and implement stricter monitoring protocols for students and visitors. 

In August 2024, three staff members of a school in Sanski Most, Bosnia were killed in a shooting by a school cleaner, who used an automatic rifle to murder the school’s director, an English language teacher and a secretary. The school had launched disciplinary proceedings against the shooter and, according to witnesses, he specifically targeted members of the disciplinary commission. 

As well as the protests sparked by mass shootings, the Western Balkans has also seen several protests seeking to raise awareness about what some have called an epidemic of femicides in the region. 

Arguably most disturbing of these was in 2023 when a Bosnian man killed his ex-wife and filmed the murder on Instagram, then killed two other people before he was apprehended. The deaths were followed by thousands-strong protests in Sarajevo and other Bosnian cities calling for an end to femicides and all forms of violence. Protests against femicide have taken place in other countries such as Serbia and Kosovo. 

The Western Balkans faces systemic issues tied to gun culture and organised crime. According to the Swiss-based Small Arms Survey, Montenegro has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Europe, with nearly 245,000 firearms in a population of just over 620,000, although other estimates are somewhat lower.

The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime warns that these weapons fuel not only local violence but also broader criminal activities such as human trafficking and drug smuggling. A 2024 comment from the NGO described the Western Balkans region as ‘awash’ with weapons, fuelling violence domestically and abroad. “Criminals and civilians alike continue to have access to small arms and light weapons, as well as assault rifles and grenades. This increases the risk of accidents and homicides,” it warned.