Finnish teen kills 8, himself, in school shooting.

[Hondo]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071107/D8SP2PC00.html

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be a uniquely US phenomenon.

[Drew]

I saw this and instantly thought of the forum.

It really can happen anywhere, unfortunetely. Some people are just naturally deranged...

Interesting fact "Gun ownership per capita in Finland is the third highest in the world"

[Galveston dunes]

The article I read said he shot himself but was in the hospital where the police arrested him and he will recover from his injuries.
Doesn't explain why other than his principal was one of those killed. I've known of Findlands gun logistics and always thought it would be the last place fpr this kind of thing. Did the article say if he was from Findland> Maybe an exchange student or something.
As an American I can feel your pain and discomfort at this time,and believe me its really stinks for awhile but it does get better..

[555-04Q2]

The worlds going to the dogs :(

[Eki]

Did the article say if he was from Findland> Maybe an exchange student or something.
He was a native Finn.

[A.F.F.]

The article I read said he shot himself but was in the hospital where the police arrested him and he will recover from his injuries.



The shooter died last night in the hospital without resuscitate.

My condolences to the families of the students and the principal and evryone involved.

[Woodeye]

Unfortunately the gunman died. He got out of this too easy.

Latest news tell that he shot 5 boys, 1 girl, the principal and the school nurse. Nurse, for crying out loud! :(

My condolences to anyone involved.

[Camelopard]

2 shootings today here in Canberra as well, whilst it isn't on the scale of what happened in Finland it shows how easy it is to obtain weapons and destroy lives, not just destroy the lives of those who died, but possibly the lives of their loved ones and school friends and work mates.

This one here in Canberra appears to be a murder and suicide.

[pino]

What a tragedy, my condolences to all Families involved in this :(

[Daniel]

Glad to see our forum Finns are OK :)

I feel for the families and others involved :(

As for the gunman. I hope he burns in hell for an eternity.

[Roamy]

yea bummer - in Indonesia they chop you up with machetes - in the middle east they just blow you up, in dafur they just ****ing shoot you. So I think at the end of the day maybe we should try to fix the human race or just get a gun and stay around for as long as you can.

[Daniel]

yea bummer - in Indonesia they chop you up with machetes - in the middle east they just blow you up, in dafur they just ****ing shoot you. So I think at the end of the day maybe we should try to fix the human race or just get a gun and stay around for as long as you can.
Sorry to take the hook....

But perhaps if people didn't have guns then people wouldn't shoot each other? I'm not aware of another method of commiting a gun crime which does not involve having a gun. Most of us live in civilised societies where we don't need to worry about someone attacking us and having guns around simply results in more accidental shootings and more people going on shooting rampages like this.

[L5->R5/CR]

My condolences to the family and my thoughts to the community and parents who will have to spend only god knows how long trying to heal and come to terms with the why.

Being from a community that has had to go through what is still the worst school shooting in history I can only still begin to imagine what those affected are dealing with.

Here is to healing first and foremost.

[Erki]

Very sorry to all involved, including the gunman. He must have been suffering quite a bit to go this far.

I don't know why that is, but in some of these cases, I'm not feeling anger or rage against the gun(wo)man, rather sadness or something similar. I mean, I don't blame them, rather feel sorry for them.

[Erki]

Interesting fact "Gun ownership per capita in Finland is the third highest in the world"

Lots of forests means a lot of hunting. A lot of hunting means a lot of guns. :)

[Eki]

Is there now an international network of school killers too? Great. Maybe we now need a War Against School Killings:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,310361,00.html

Report: Police Discover Link Between Finnish School Shooter and U.S. Plotter

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Tuusula, Finland — The YouTube killer who shot dead eight members of his school in Finland before turning his gun on himself had internet contacts with an American teenager who was planning a shooting spree in a high school in Philadelphia, it was claimed yesterday, according to a Times of London report.

The disclosure could turn upside down previous assumptions about the dynamics of school massacres. Until now, teenage killers were regarded as depressed loners whose imagination had been stoked by aggressive computer games. Now it seems that information may have been shared by potential killers over the Internet: a virtual community of young people who idolize the 1999 Columbine High School murders, said the Times of London.

“It’s highly probable that there was some form of contact between Pekka-Eric Auvinen and Dillon Cossey,” a spokesman for the cyber crime department of Helsinki police said. Dillon Cossey, 14, was arrested last month on suspicion of planning to storm his old school, Plymouth Whitemarsh. Police acting on a tipoff found a 9mm semi-automatic rifle, handmade grenades, a .22 pistol and a .22 single-shot rifle at his home. Less than two weeks later Auvinen, already a member of a shooting club, was buying his first gun — a .22 pistol — and expressing interest in a 9mm semi-automatic.

Police do not believe this to have been a coincidence. The two youths are thought to have made contact over two MySpace groups, “RIP Eric and Dylan” — a reference to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who killed 12 schoolmates at Columbine — and “Natural Selection”.

Dillon Cossey used the alias Shadow 19462 on internet forums. Overweight and bullied, he had been withdrawn from Plymouth Whitemarsh and was resentful. His MySpace profile lauded the Columbine killers as heroes.The 18- year-old Finnish killer made a rambling testimony on YouTube, clearly drawing on the rhetoric used in the Natural Selection group and related chat rooms. His YouTube account — under the pseudonym Sturmgeist89 — included snippets from violent films, shots of him posing with his “beloved” pistol and tributes to other mass murderers. It was viewed 200,000 times before being closed down after the Finnish high school killings on Wednesday.

Police are trying to establish whether the Jokela massacre was in some way a copycat event or whether it resulted from an exchange of tips across the internet. Across Europe cyber-crime experts are nervous that some of the abuses on the net committed by Islamic fanatics could become a model for other marginalized groups.

[Drew]

I imagine that if you share the same interests, you'll somehow meet other likeminded people.

Although I'm surprised his videos got 200,000 hits.

[BDunnell]

Very sorry to all involved, including the gunman. He must have been suffering quite a bit to go this far.

I don't know why that is, but in some of these cases, I'm not feeling anger or rage against the gun(wo)man, rather sadness or something similar. I mean, I don't blame them, rather feel sorry for them.

A very welcome humane post. :up:

[BeansBeansBeans]

Very sorry to all involved, including the gunman. He must have been suffering quite a bit to go this far.

I don't know why that is, but in some of these cases, I'm not feeling anger or rage against the gun(wo)man, rather sadness or something similar. I mean, I don't blame them, rather feel sorry for them.

That's how I feel.

As I'm fond of saying, there are no winners in a case like this.