AMSTERDAM - The editing bureau of the monthly Dutch business magazine "Quote" was the target of gunfire yesterday or this morning, by unknown people. Thursday night, the home of Quote publisher Maarten van den Biggelaar in Amsterdam South was the target of gunfire as well. The perpetrators are unknown. The Quote editorial team reckons with the possibility of a revenge action by people who were portrayed in the magazine last year. In the ceiling of the editing room, on the second floor of its premises on the Singel near King's Square, 19 bullet holes were found this morning. According to the editors, they were bullets with a "hefty" caliber, given the number of bullet holes, presumably fired with a firearm equipped with a muffler.
This morning the premises were briefly evacuated by a technical police team for investigation. The shots must have been fired yesterday or last night. "Yesterday afternoon there were still people present in the editorial office", an employee said. "This morning we discovered the bullet holes". "The editorial office was sieved, you can say that for sure", said publisher Maarten van den Biggelaar, who discovered bullet holes in his own home in Amsterdam South. "We haven't heard the shots at home, but there appeared to be bullet holes in the window and the ceiling of the room of my son". Is he frightened ? "Well, hey, I don't have to answer that now, do I ? Something like this, we've never had to go through before." Van den Biggelaar doesn't want to speculate about the perpetrators. "The police will sort that out". No one has claimed responsibility for the action so far. The editorial team connects the shootings with a feature Quote published about the abduction of Mr Heineken as hostage by Willem Holleeder, and his relationship with real estate magnate Willem Endstra. Quote published the story exactly a year ago. ""He posted with his bicycle at the editorial office". Chief editor Jort Kelder doesn't want to speculate. "This is just bizarre", he said. "You ask yourself, why us ? Quote is a lifestyle business magazine, we don't rake up so many quarrels. We just do our work, I don't know at all who did this, but if somebody has complaints, I prefer it that we drink a cup of coffee with him instead of bullets going through the ceiling." Translated from Het Parool at: http://www.parool.nl/artikelen/NIE/1069653826149.html Technical note: According to the Scientific Research and Documentation Centre of the Dutch Ministry of Justice, the number of illegally owned firearms confiscated by police has been rising in recent years. For example, in 1995, 992 firearms were confiscated, as against 2576 in 1999 and 2463 in 2000. The number of confiscated pistols and revolvers remains fairly constant, but the number of machine guns encountered by police continued to rise between 1997 and 2000. In 2000, 58 weapons were confiscated per 100.000 inwoners inhabitants in the Amsterdam region, and in Holland as a whole, 1,554 gas and alarm pistols plus 1,781 imitations weapons were confiscated. In Holland, guns can be legally owned, but there are also many illegal weapons. No overview statistics are provided by the Dutch government to citizens about legally owned firearms, to my knowledge, this is all a bit hush-hush. Estimating the total number of illegal firearms owned by Dutch residents is not easy, but it is said to be between 75,000 and 125,000 weapons altogether, suggesting a minimum of one illegal firearm per 200 inhabitants and a maximum of one firarm per 125 inhabitants. Holland contains 7 million households, and has a population of 16.2 million. If therefore there are said to be 5-8 illegal firearms per 1000 inhabitants, and if the average humber of inhabitants per household is about 2.3 people, this suggests one illegal firearm per 87 or so households as a minimum and one illegal firearm per 54 or so households maximum (I haven't the time to calculate it to 5 decimal points). However, this rough estimate refers only to the total population, not to the adult population, and they are not adjusted for the differences between adult households, and family households either. The likelihood that adult households without children would contain illegal firearms is quite possibly greater. By combining demographic, postal and geographic information, it is of course possible to arrive at much more accurate estimates for the presence of firearms within spatial co-ordinates, although the Ministry of Justice has not done this to my knowledge or keeps it secret. But, basically, you can say, there is at the very least one illegal firearm present per street in a residential area, in addition to legal firearms which may be owned by residents. In Holland, the murder rate is still comparatively low, and about 4 out of 10 men are murdered with a firearm, as against just under 7 out of 10 women. The likelihood of murder increases in the weekend, especially among 20-30 year old men, and the overall susceptibility to murder increases significantly between the ages of 20-40 years old. The incidence of murder is greatest among males between 25 and 30 years old. "I want justice. There's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive'... All I'm doing is remembering. When I was a kid, I remember that they used to put out there in the Old West a 'wanted' poster. It said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'" - George Bush, President of the United States of America, September 17, 2001. I read the news today oh boy Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire And though the holes were rather small They had to count them all Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall. We love to turn you on - "A Day in the Life", The Beatles Well you were there in the square When I was shooting my mouth of 'bout saving some fish Now couldn't that be construed As some liberal's view or some radical's wish Uh-oh it's so hot outside And the air is so sweet And when the pressure drop is heavy Then I want to hear you speak You know most killing is committed At 90 degrees When it's too hot to think And it's too hot to breathe There's always s-s-someone looking at you - Boomtown Rats, "Someone looking at you"
