Korean Gunman Kills Three With Hunting Rifle Before Killing Himself; Police to Change Hunting Regulations

Via a reader tip comes this story of a gunman in South Korea who killed three people before committing suicide:

 

A gunman shot and killed three people Friday before he was found dead at a home in a city near the capital Seoul in the second such incident in three days, police officials said.

Shooting incidents are rare in South Korea, which tightly controls gun possession, and the two deadly shootings this week will likely trigger a debate on whether the country should tighten its control on hunting weapons that can be legally owned.

A police official from Hwaseong City, who didn’t want to be named, citing office rules, said the victims included a policeman who was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene. The official said the suspect is believed to be the brother of one of the victims, whose wife was also dead.

The suspect was found dead with a gunshot wound in what the police believed to be a suicide. The daughter-in-law of the dead couple managed to escape by jumping from a second-floor window before alerting the police, and is currently being treated at a hospital for a minor back injury.

Police said the murder weapon was believed to be a hunting gun. The gunman had retrieved the gun from a nearby police station about an hour before the morning shooting, the police official said.

South Koreans can obtain licenses for shotguns and air rifles for the purpose of hunting animals, but they are required to keep the weapons at police stations and use them only during legal hunting periods. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the suspect owned the gun or had a proper license for it.  [Fox News]

You can read the rest at the link, but according to Yonhap the shooter was 75 years old and checked out the hunting rifle shortly before the shooting:

Police said Jeon often got drunk and demanded money from his brother, according to his neighbors.

He took out a hunting rifle from a police station an hour before the shooting and told the officers he would return after he finishes hunting the next day.

Police officers said they did not notice anything suspicious about the man despite his old age and frequent visits to the substation to take out guns.

The incident came two days after another gunman killed three people in the central city of Sejong before turning the gun on himself.

Civilians are rarely armed with guns in South Korea. Only those with genuine reasons are allowed to own one, and it must be stored at police substations. [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but the Korean police plan to limit the amount of substations now that can hold guns and require re-licensing for hunting weapons every three years now in response to this incident.