Germany today took further steps to tighten gun laws after 17 people died in a school massacre.
Chancellor Mr Gerhard Schroeder called for a meeting of the country's 16 state premiers on May 6th in Berlin to discuss a further clampdown on gunholders in response to Friday's slaying in the eastern town of Erfurt by a teenage student.
Leaders from all the main political parties said the legal age to obtain a gun licence should be raised to 21 from 18 currently and many questioned whether even owners of firearms should be allowed to keep their weapons in their homes.
The slaying of 16 people in a high school by a failed student who later killed himself has thrust the issue of gun control into the centre of Germany's election campaign.
Mr Robert Steinhaeuser (19) returned to his former school and shot dead 13 teachers, two students, a police officer and himself in the country's worst post-war massacre.
Even though Germany already has some of the world's toughest gun laws, and it takes almost a year for applicants to complete rigorous testing to obtain a licence, the attack has prompted calls from most quarters for even stronger limits.
Parliament passed a measure tightening gun laws on the day of the school massacre. The new law stipulated owners of airguns, which shoot potentially deadly small pellets, must now carry a specific licence for the weapons.
No licence was previously required for the airguns, which had been involved in a growing number of shootings in recent years. The age limit was at the same time lowered from 12 to 10. The law also banned several types of dangerous knives.
Aside from the loophole on airguns, which was closed by the law passed on Friday, Germans in general had felt their gun control laws were sufficient before the Erfurt killing.