Finnish School Shooting Shocks The World

Though we all remain vigilant with regard to the safety of our children in our schools, I know that somehow, we have been feeling a bit more relaxed in the past few months. With all that the authorities and other sectors involved have been doing, it would be quite difficult for a perpetrator to carry out his violent acts today, right? I wonder if the same thinking prevailed in other countries? Maybe not.

I am sure that you heard about the gunman in Finland who killed 10 people on a shooting spree at a school. As I was reading the different reports on the incident, I couldn’t help but think that it is a nightmarish situation. It brought me back to the days of Columbine and Virginia Tech. They may be thousands of miles away but I am sure that the people involved do not feel any different than those here in the United States.

Reuters reports:

A student shot dead 10 people at a vocational school on Tuesday, Finland’s second such attack in less than a year and just one day after the gunman was interviewed by police over Internet postings.

The killer, 22-year-old Matti Saari, started a fire in the school and then shot himself in the head. He died later in Tampere University Hospital.

“A cold-blooded shooter entered the building with an automatic pistol and started cutting down students,” said Jukka Forsberg, a maintenance man at the post-secondary school in the town of Kauhajoki where the shooting occurred.

“He also shot towards me, did not say anything and once the bullets started to whizz by I started running for my life.”

Police said identification of the bodies was slow because of blaze started by the gunman.
“The site has suffered from fires and the victims have been partially burnt,” said police Chief Superintendent Urpo Lintala.

This is not the first time that such an incident has happened in Finland. Earlier this year, a similar event occurred at Finland’s Jokela high school. This time, though, Saari actually made a video of himself, threatening to do violent deeds and made the video public. The police actually had him in custody the day before the shooting but released him on the grounds that they didn’t have anything to hold him for.

I am sure that the police will have to answer some questions because of this – I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes right now. Yet a big question remains: how were they supposed to know that Saari would actually make true on his word? How are officials supposed to deal with these things? This is something that every country in the world should address and answer in the soonest possible time, don’t you think?

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