Citizens hold their weapons under the pillow or mattress, in the chimney, in the oven or in the country house, on the hat stand or in the summer house.

Weapons availability coupled with children's curiosity has led to the family tragedy in Apatin. Playing with his father's gun, 14-year old boy shot himself in the temple, in the presence of his 9-year old sister. The 7.65 mm pistol CZ M-70 was kept in the cupboard, and the boy's father had inherited it from his father.

All surveys that have been so far conducted in Serbia, apart from speaking about the issue of proliferation of both legal and illegal barrels in civilian possession, also point at the problem of carelessness and lack of education when it comes to proper keeping of weapons. Although the law prescribes that the weapons should be kept locked or secured in another way, i.e. in various safes in order not to end up in the hands of unauthorized and inexpert persons, weapon owners appear to be led by the "maxim" – this will never happen to me.

On the other hand, there are no mechanisms of control over arms owners. They say in the MoI that there are citizens who keep weapons in various – inadequate – places: under the pillow or mattress, in the chimney or in the oven, in the country house, on the hat stand or in the summer house. This is mostly revealed when a crime or a theft of the weapons is committed.

The police have no right to search homes and oversee if the weapons are kept safely, but the owner of the barrel faces the consequences of his own carelessness. The investigation then identifies if the weapon was in a proper state and legally regulated.

However, children do not think about the consequences. Psychologists say that as soon as they find out that there is a weapon in the house, out of sheer curiosity, they will try to get it.

Thus in April this year the sixteen-year old I.J. from Boljevac accidentally shot the 17-year old S. J. from his father's air gun "Crvena Zastava". When he was left alone with the girl, out of curiosity the boy took the gun and shot her in the right calve without a real intention. Luckily enough, S.J. had only a small scratch on her leg.

In March this year, an eighteen-year boy was in coma for 15 days because his friend shot him in the head with a pistol. The incident happened at a party in Kragujevac. The boy found his father's pistol on a shelf and accidentally fired a bullet. The police hold him suspect for an attempted murder.

A seventh grader of the elementary school "Branko Radicevic" in Negotin shot himself last year in his parents' house. The boy's father had a license for holding weapon, but it is unknown, the media reported, how the pistol ended up in the boy's hands.

A big tragedy was avoided by sheer luck two years ago in Nova Pazova, when an eighth grader hurt himself in the arm by shooting from a pistol. The case happened in the sports hall wardrobe. A friend of this boy had brought the pistol to school in his school bag, together with books. The boys were admiring the weapon, and V.S. took it and trying to simulate gunfire, pulled the trigger. There was a bullet in the barrel, which hit the boy in his finger.

Except for almost 1.1 million of registered weapons, the problem is also three times as many weapons in illegal civilian possession. Such a phenomenon is attributed to the so-called gun culture in Serbia, inherited from the past conflicts, with a justification – "no one knows when it'll come in handy". As weapons brought from the war are not registered, the police investigation is difficult, as the December event illustrates.

 An under-age boy took a pistol from his father and gave it to two friends of his, with whom he planned to rob a shop in Kragujevac. They had sold one pistol before and another after the robbery of the shop, from which they stole 7,000 dinars. It turned out that only in a couple of days both pistols changed their owners five times. The police seized the pistols and pressed criminal charges against as many as 13 persons. The charge was brought against the boy's father, who did not have a license for pistols that he had brought from Kosovo more than ten years ago.