Shock, Security Concerns After Finland School Shootings

Criminal Justice

Shock, Security Concerns After Finland School Shootings

Posted Nov 8, 2007, 11:24 am CST
By Martha Neil

As Finland observed a national day of mourning today for the eight victims of yesterday's high school shooting, the country's legislature met in emergency session to consider imposing stepped-up school security measures.

Although the country has the third-highest amount of per-capita gun ownership in the world, violent crime is rare in Finland and its citizens are in a state of shock over the Virginia Tech-like random attack on fellow students at Jokela High School, reports the British Broadcasting Corp. The massacre is Finland's deadliest peacetime shooting.

The 18-year-old gunman, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, killed the headmistress, a nurse and six students before committing suicide by shooting himself in the head. He had previously posted at least two YouTube videos. The earlier one shows him shooting at apples in the woods and the later one, reportedly posted just before the shootings, shows him pointing a gun at the camera and a photo of the school, according to the London Times, which provides links to the videos.

Comparing the slaughter to school shooting massacres in recent years at Virginia Tech, Columbine and Erfurt, Germany, the newspaper attributes yesterday's attack to an all-too-familiar phenomenon—the "crazed marginalized teenager who takes out his frustration on his teachers and schoolmates," after "retreat[ing] into an interior world that [is] structured by his computer, video games that tap his inner aggressions, throbbing downloaded music and a locked room."

The Associated Press provides a lengthier list of school killings in recent years.

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