Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has commended the citizens for turning in more than 10,000 guns in the first week of a month-long drive aimed at rounding up unlicensed firearms. He also promised “repressive measures” for anyone found with illegal weapons after the amnesty’s end.

“What does anyone need an automatic weapon for? Or all these guns?” the president told reporters, commending the citizenry for voluntarily disarming. He said about half the weapons collected were legally registered and given up by owners, while the rest were unlicensed and accepted with no questions asked. 

“I am grateful to the people who turned in weapons,” Vucic said, noting that the haul will be sent to weapons and ammunition factories to potentially be converted for military use. 

“cruel” when it comes to prosecuting illegal gun possession, with steep fines and “repressive measures.”

Vucic launched the weapons drive after two mass shootings in the span of three days. On May 3, a 13-year-old student at Belgrade’s Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School fatally shot eight of his classmates and a security guard, wounding six more students and a teacher. Another eight people were killed and 14 wounded in the nearby municipality of Mladenovac the following day. The attacker was arrested after an eight-hour manhunt.

Some critics have pointed out that the Nazi-allied government of Croatia in WWII also sought to disarm the Serbs, even as it had them rounded up in a campaign of mass murder and genocide.