German School Shooting
This is breaking news, my friends – hot off the press. I just saw the news alert from Google a few minutes ago and I knew that I had to write about it in this blog. Earlier today, a gunman entered the premises of Albertville Elementary School in the town of Winnenden. The town is located in the southern part of Germany, near Stuttgart.
The earliest reports state that the perpetrator is a gunman who was wearing black combat gear and that he was a former student of the school. Upon entering the school, the gunman opened fire. This was reported to have happened at around 8:45 in the morning, GMT. The students of the school were startled when they heard the gunfire, and some panicked and jumped out of the classroom windows.
As of now, there are 11 people reported dead, ten of them children and one an adult. The latest article that I read is from Bloomberg and it reports that the gunman was a 17-year-old male. The Deutsche Presse-Agentur has reported that he is dead as well.
We do not often hear of school shootings in this part of the world – at least not as much as in the United States – but in 2002, Germany experienced one of the worst incidents, when Robert Steinhaeuser killed himself and 17 other people in his former high school. He was expelled.
No matter what the reason may be, or how the shooting was done, the stark reality that our German counterparts have to face now is the fact that school safety ought to be of primary importance. According to some reports, the gunman’s family practically had an arsenal of firearms at home. The Bild newspaper reported that they had 18 weapons at home – all of which are legally registered. This could highlight the need for stricter regulations as to how weapons are kept in private homes. While the weapons may be legally acquired and kept, there should be some way of tracking down the security of these weapons. Otherwise, shootings such as this most recent one may happen again in the future.
One thing I am seeing in all this is that school violence is NOT restricted to the United States. This must be realized by people all over the world and measures must be set in place to prevent any similar event from occurring. It is my hope that this incident will open the eyes of many.
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Posted on March 11th, 2009 by Deborah J Thomas
Filed under: News, People Involved, School Safety Issues, Security, Shootings, Students
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