Austria ranks among the highest in Europe for civilian gun ownership, with approximately 30 guns per 100 residents, according to the 2017 Small Arms Survey, a Geneva research group. While countries such as Cyprus, Finland, and Iceland report slightly higher rates, Austria remains an outlier in the continent.

Speaking to ORF radio, Stocker said officials aimed to set stricter eligibility rules for possession and purchase of arms after a 21-year-old Austrian man on Tuesday shot dead ten people at a high school in the city of Graz before killing himself.

With Austria still reeling from this week's deadly school shooting that killed 10 people, a debate is now raging over the Alpine country's gun laws. The unprecedented case of deadly gun violence stunned the country of almost 9.