Word: kretschmar
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...There has been heated debate over Germany's gun laws ever since a school shooting in the southern town of Winnenden on March 11, when 17-year-old Tim Kretschmar went on a rampage, killing 15 people before turning the gun on himself. After much wrangling between the conservative CDU and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government, the parties have finally agreed on a number of measures aimed at tightening Germany's gun controls, which are already quite strict compared with other European countries. (Read about Merkel in the TIME...
...legal age for using a high-caliber weapon for target practice from 14 to 18; amnesty for people who hand over illegal weapons to the authorities; and biometric security systems to ensure that weapons are being used by their rightful owners. After the Winnenden shooting, it emerged that Kretschmar had used his father's gun, which he found in his parents' bedroom. His father had a permit to own the gun, but current law dictates that it should have been stored in a secure location...