Montenegro - Two Public Mass Murders in four Years in a Small European Nation

Map of Montenegro

On January 1, 2025, a mass murder was committed with firearms in the European country of Montenegro. Twelve victims were killed. The perpetrator, Aco Martinovic committed suicide. Martinovic had been previously convicted of possession of illegal weapons and was appealing his sentence. Four of the victims were shot in Martinovic’s home. He was drinking heavily before the event. From rferl.org:

PODGORICA — The Montenegrin government has announced a raft of new gun-control measures, following a mass shooting that killed 12 people, including two children.

The shooting took place on January 1 in the western Montenegrin city of Cetinje. Four other people were injured.

On August 12, 2022, another mass murder started with the murderer killing a mother and two children in his home. The killer then started killing random people in the city of Cetinje. Another seven victims were killed before an armed citizen stopped the rampage by shooting the murderer and killing him, while the murderer was in a gunfight with police.  From rferl.org:

 The Action for Human Rights and the Center for Women’s Rights NGOs called for a thorough examination of the police response, saying that Cetinje had only a minimal police presence despite being home to 120 known organized crime members and having experienced a similar massacre in August 2022, when an attacker killed 10 people and wounded six before being killed by a passerby.

If a person looks only at these two incidents and the four year period in which they occurred, Montenegro has had .91 people killed in mass public murder with firearms per 100K population per year.

Over a 20 year period 1998-2017, the United States had .0079 people killed in mass public murders where firearms are used. The rate in Montenegro for 2022 – 2025 was 115 times as high as the rate for the United States from 1998-2017.

The comparison is not fair, because it looks at a four year period in a country with a population of about 600,000 (Montenegro) compared to a country with over 315 million over a 20 year period (USA).  When an attempt is made to correlate mass murder with firearms to the number of firearms in a country, there is no correlation.  Overall, Europe does not have a great difference in the number of people killed by by public mass murder with firearms. Much depends on the definitions used.

The Montenegro experience dramatically illustrates the lie put forward by the Left: Mass murder by shooting only happens in the United States. This is illustrated by quotes in Crime Prevention Research Center study of mass public murder with firearms around the world, published in 2020. The CPRC goes on to show mass public shooting in Europe are pretty common. The study eviserates the lies quoted below.:

 “The one thing we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world.” –President Obama, interview that aired on CBS Evening News, Dec. 2, 2015

“This doesn’t happen anywhere else on the planet.” — California’s Governor-elect Gavin Newson, referring to 12 people killed at the Borderline Bar and Grill, Thousand Oaks, California, November 8, 2018

“We stand alone in the world in the number of mass shootings,” Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), November 5, 2018

Claims that the USA is unique in the number of mass public murders with firearms have become scarce after the presentation of Lott’s paper to Congress.  Mass murder with firearms has little to do with the number of firearms legally available to the citizens of a country.

chart of countries gun ownership v mass murder with firearms

An interesting bit of information is the persistent claim one of the two mass murders in Montenegro was stopped by an armed citizen.

According to Crime Prevention Research Center, the FBI has consistently overlooked and misclassified reported cases where privately armed citizens have stopped mass murder. The FBI reported 4.1% of cases were stopped by armed civilians. The CPRC research shows the correct number to be  35.7%. If cases where private citizens are banned from carrying guns are taken out of the mix, the number is 63.5%.  The death toll in the USA would likely be much higher if citizens were forbidden from carrying weapons for defense.

Montenegro has one of the highest rate of private firearms in Europe. Looking at the data collected by the CRPC and presented by John Lott, there are several countries in Europe which surpass the number of people killed in public mass murders with firearms in the United States. Those include Norway, Kosovo, Finland, and France.  The trending tactic used to commit mass murder trend is to use ramming attacks with vehicles, such as the one in France in 2016, in which 84 (updated to 87) people were murdered.

Banning gun ownership by private citizens does not stop mass murder. In some ways, it facilitates mass public murders by greatly restricting the ability to fight back. None of the policies put forward in the wake of public mass murder with firearms in the USA would have been stopped by “universal background checks” or requirements to lock up firearms.

Analysis:

Mass murder is a cultural phenomena, independent of the weapons used.  The most important and effective way to stop mass murder is to stop the media contagion effect. Media contagion happens which media gives enormous coverage to mass murderers, making anti-heros of people bent on mass murder/suicide, or celebrates mass murderers as Jihadi martyrs.

©2024 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

All of the above is true. It illustrates  of the ways to lie with statistics.

In August of

People killed in Mass Public Shootings per 100k per year  in Montenegro 2022-2025  population 605K   .91

Paper on rate of mass public shootings by Crime Prevention Research Center

Paper presented by John Lott, Congressional testimony 2020   has graphs

From rferl.org:

PODGORICA — The Montenegrin government has announced a raft of new gun-control measures, following a mass shooting that killed 12 people, including two children.

The shooting took place on January 1 in the western Montenegrin city of Cetinje. Four other people were injured.

Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic announced the proposed new Law on Weapons on January 3 following a seven-hour session of the National Security Council, which is chaired by the country’s president.

The proposed law will mandate the reverification of existing weapons licenses and impose severe penalties for those who fail to surrender illegal weapons within a two-month period. Spajic also said that hunting clubs would be verified and the authorities would establish an anonymous tip line where citizens can report illegal weapons possession for a reward.

Manhunt

The suspected shooter, Aco Martinovic, died on the way to the hospital after attempting suicide following the killings and subsequent manhunt.

Martinovic had previously had illegal weapons confiscated in 2022 and received a three-month prison sentence in late 2024, which he had appealed.

Police have not yet revealed the identities of the victims, but they are believed to have been relatives, friends, and godparents of Martinovic.

(snip)

The Action for Human Rights and the Center for Women’s Rights NGOs called for a thorough examination of the police response, saying that Cetinje had only a minimal police presence despite being home to 120 known organized crime members and having experienced a similar massacre in August 2022, when an attacker killed 10 people and wounded six before being killed by a passerby.