School shooting in Germany leaves 16 dead
 

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...612612,00.html

The season is opened.

Just some time earlier: shooting spree in Alabama:

http://www.welt.de/english-news/arti...ing-spree.html

Red it this morning, just horrible
I hope they catch him alive.:shifty:

HunterICX

Nope, committed suicide. I'd be interested to hear what type of solutions the German media has in relation to stopping incidents like this from happening again. I can sort of read news in German but I'm still learning and my speed of reading is pretty slow.

Edit. Correction, they are still looking for him. Some conflicting info in the media about the situation.

Bild now says the Police shot him.

http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/2009/03...winnenden.html

@Fin
Forget Bild! it's yellow press on lowest level.:down:

I always love it when 17 year olds have access to the weapons and amunitions of their parents.:nope:

At least 16 dead. Nice going, weapon fetishists.

Unbeliveable this stuff has to stop

Well it wont stop by taking away legal guns, these are mental issues, these people have used knives, spears, flamethrovers and bombs also.
I could kill ten in a mall with fork if i wanted to.:doh:

:nope:

How does a fetish have anything to do with this:06:

@HT
Actually massacres like this have always been carried out with firearms in Germany (at least I don't recall any massacre with more than a dozen fatals that was carried out with knives). Usually parents made their weapons accessable to their kids or the kids found out were the keys were. Without those weapons such deeds can't be done.

Damn, that totally sucks. Why allways schools.. :nope:
Wonder how he got his hands on the weapons in the first place.

As morbid as it is, I wonder on whom or what they (especially the media) try to pin it this time. As far as I remember, last time they tried to blame video games and stuff.

True, but then the parents are at least partially at fault for making the weapons accessible in one way or another.

Some say that the media should be quiet about these things, media coverage in a way glorifies these things. Not sure if that's true. I think the media together with the schools could act to prevent these things. Unfortunately it would probably take money and not everyone is willing to put more money into making schools better. Some politicians even have connections to weapon companies, I doubt they will see guns as a part of the problem.

How do you make weapons inaccessable for 17 year olds? If you store them in your house they will sooner or later find out how to get them.:damn:
It would take a safe in a bank that can only be opened with a personal key and a member of the bank`s staff together to really deny access to others.

While you have a good point, I do not think weapons are the problem. People are the problem. In Europe and US they use guns, in the Middle East explosives and a mixture of both plus blades in Asia (with Japanese, AFAIR, predominantly using knives and sword for suck acts) .
Personally, I am all for strict laws regarding weapons and Germany has some very strict laws. Unfortunately, and that goes for every country, if you want to get your hands on some weapons: There is always the possibility of getting them. Either steal or buy them on the black market.

Unfortunately massacres like this are great selling points for the media and offer great opportunities for politicians to crawl back into the public eye and blame it it on whoever they like or brings the most votes.

Well we can't ban people, only educate them and then care for their mental and physical health. This is, if the political parties are willing to pay for things like, say, mental care for young children. From what I know political parties on the right are pretty lukewarm about things like that while at the same time having close connections to weapon manufacturing business.

While I think guns are not 100% of the problem, I wouldn't say that they are 0% of the problem either. The real figure is somewhere in between. And if by creating a very strict gun legislation or through a complete ban there would be a possibility of preventing even ~20% of school shootings, I would definitely consider it.

We live in a culture of violance. We celebrate violent conflict solving. Morals fail, idols are often misleading todayx, ethics are open for negotiation. Weapons and the access to them is a fetish for not just a few. Values get reduced to money. Displays of brutality fill TV, movie and computer screens 24/7.

Things like the massacre today are just the logical price for that kind of "culture".

Take away perspectives for a future worth to be experienced, and you will earn an attitude that also does not care for the present too much anymore - why should it if the future is not any promising?

If the parents let key the laying around the house it is their damn fault. You can get gun safes that use number combination locks, electronic locks or good ol' mechanical locks.
If they get their hands on weapons it is because the parents or the gun owner got sloppy and lazy.
It is the parents responsibility to educate their children in things like that and instill responsibility and respect to what weapons can do and how to handle them safely.

I grew up in Germany around weapons. My Dad was a hunter and al ot of his friends were hunters also. I knew where the weapons were and what kind of weapons he had. The only way I could get to them would have been to knock my parents out and steal the only key to them that was in the house. My father had his key in his view almost all the time. Even when they went to bed he took em with him.

Same here, I grew up in the country, my father had a couple shotguns, a deer rifle, and a pistol. He kept them in his closet. While the closet simply had an ordinary door, no locks, he had a superior security system. He told me not to mess with them. That's all it took. He trusted me, and I respected him.

My thoughts go out to the German families who have suffered this tragedy.