Three pistols and one rifle of unknown make and calibre. That is how much firepower was used on the evening of 31 July in the yard of a family house in the village of Dobri Dol, municipality of Vrapčište, during a wedding celebration. They fired into the air and in doing so, as the Gostivar public prosecutor's office announced, endangered the lives of a large number of guests.

Prosecutors opened proceedings against four men for the criminal offence of "causing general danger" under Article 288, paragraph 3 in relation to paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code. The prosecutor asked the pre-trial judge to order detention for all four, citing circumstances that point to a flight risk. For one of the suspects the risk is higher still - alongside Macedonian citizenship, he also holds Slovenian.

The police did not catch them. The internet did.

Two days ago a video appeared on social media showing young men standing on a car and firing into the air. It drew a wave of angry reactions, given the strict ban on using weapons at weddings and celebrations. The case came afterwards - following a criminal complaint from the interior ministry.

So the ban exists. The Criminal Code exists. Article 288 exists. The weapons existed too - four of them, in one yard, in one place. The only thing needed to set the entire machinery in motion was for someone at the party to upload the clip.

That is the model we live by: the party gets filmed, the film gets posted, the post becomes evidence. Had the phones stayed in pockets, would anyone have asked whose pistol it was?

The four are now waiting on a detention decision. The case continues and the authorities will establish further details. One uncomfortable question remains for Dobri Dol and for every other village in the country: four firearms at a single wedding do not appear out of nowhere. Someone kept them, someone brought them, and someone knew there would be shooting. Those names are in no press release.