A Turkish wedding groom has killed three people with an automatic weapon--his father and two aunts--and injured eight relatives after opening fire into the air with a gun, in celebration of his wedding.
Eight surviving grooms' relatives are recovering from injuries sustained during Sunday's Turkey wedding celebration, a ceremony taking place in the country’s southeastern province of Gaziantep, when the wedding’s groom lost control of the automatic weapon, accidentally aiming at ceremony guests.
Turkish tradition includes shooting into the air--with a gun--to “celebrate” weddings, circumcisions or sports victories. Turkey has failed to curb the shooting practice—only has imposed harsher punishments to cut down on stray bullet accidents; the groom was arrested following the accidental shootings and killings, to face harsher criminal punishments for a practice that has not been outlawed by Turkey.
The accidental shooting deaths of family members in a wedding celebration falls on the heels of a recent event in Italy--where family was killed during a photo shoot, when the photographer encouraged the bride and groom to pose with a gun that was not checked for bullets in the chamber.