Shooting sparks call for stricter gun control

/ Yonhap

By Lee Ji-hye

After a deadly shooting rampage Wednesday, concerns have been raised about the gun ownership laws.

According to police, Kang, the shooter, who committed suicide after killing three in an act of revenge against his ex-girlfriend, used shotguns that were registered for hunting under his name at a police station armory as required by law.

Kang legitimately checked them out hours before the killing spree occurred.

Now, police are under pressure to propose ways of revising the current law in order to keep guns away from potential killers.

Making this challenge even more daunting is the fact that there are 94,182 firearms legally registered to individuals in Korea, according to the National Police Agency.

As well as shotguns, these include air rifles, gas powered guns and tranquilizer guns.

The law requires citizens to obtain a hunting license permit in order to possess a shotgun.

All firearms must be kept at police stations when not in use.

Police believe that an increasing number of guns are being smuggled into the country, while it is not uncommon for people to modify air rifles to make them powerful enough to be lethal.

"There is no other way to manage these weapons besides waiting for owners to come forward and ask for authorization," one police officer was quoted as saying after the shooting.

A total of 4,480 guns were turned in throughout 2014, including 91 shotguns and 1,028 air rifles, according to the Guns and Explosives Safety Technology Association at the National Police Agency.

"We may have to bar people with a history of violence from possessing firearms," said the police officer. "We plan to look further into methods of tightening security of guns."