11 dead after teen shooting rampage at German school

:( Just awful... My thoughts are with the parents, family and friends that lost a beloved child...

Jamie
 
I hate to play the number game, but the number of deaths has been raised to 16. :(
 
How sad.

Seems like an epidemic on kids shooting up schools nowadays. Not just in the U.S. In other countries as well.
 
I just learnt that one of my friends is leaving nearby the tiny village where this actually happened. The people are all over the place and everybody is confused at this boys acting. Many people state he was a calm and very unknown teenager. For all there is, other teenagers were even the ones nagging him...

Obviously the entire neighborhood didn't know anything about the parents owning like 18 guns at their home! In the village there are about 3000 people living there, so it's actually very small!

My friend also stated that she even heard the gunshots!!! :shock:

Jamie
 
Yes, because he didn't seem to have any sort of problems... police is still investigating...

JL
 
Another European country, Finland, is planning to toughen firearm laws after two school shootings there left 20 people dead. Those incidents occurred in November 2007 and September 2008.
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it's oxymoronic to tighten the laws just after couple of rare incidents. it's simple - look at the source of problem, not the gun. I see that German police has responded quickly to this situation.... I guess the world learned a thing or two from America.

this is why couple of states have legalized college students to carry concealed weapon to colleges. No matter what you do - banning and tightening it won't do SHIT. Shit happens. But what you can do is PREVENT it from getting worse.
 
I was about going to create a thread but Royale beat me... so I post the German article here after long 1 hour watch "ZDF Spezial" on TV today.

Teenage Gunman Takes Own Life After German School Shooting

Police in Stuttgart have confirmed the death of a gunman in a school-shooting incident that left at least 15 victims dead and several injured near Stuttgart in the southwest of the country.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed the nation's horror after the fatal shootings of Wednesday, March 11.

"It's a day of sorrow for all of Germany," Merkel told reporters in Berlin. "It is incomprehensible that, within seconds, a terrible crime took pupils and teachers to their deaths."

At 9:30 a.m. local time, a 17-year-old identified only as Tim K. entered the Albertville school in Winnenden -- a town of 27,600, near Stuttgart in southwestern Germany -- and began shooting randomly. Nine students and three teachers died in this initial attack.

"I heard two shots and then a scream," a 15-year-old pupil inside the school told AP news agency. "At first, I thought it was a joke, but then someone yelled: 'Run, run!'"

Police said that two emergency squads were immediately dispatched to the school, but that the gunman had already hijacked a car and fled to the town of Wendlingen -- around 40 kilometers away.

Police said the gunman shot dead three bystanders, before taking how own life. Authorities corrected earlier reports saying the teenager was killed by police in a shoot-out.

Authorities estimated the total death toll to be at least 16, although initial details about those injured were sketchy.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Winnenden is located in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg in southwestern Germany
AP reported that the gunman's father was a member of a local rifle club, and that police who searched the family home found one firearm missing.

Wednesday's shooting followed a rampage in the United States on Tuesday in which a gunman shot dead 11 people then killed himself in southern Alabama. It's unclear whether there is a connection between the two shooting sprees.

String of school shootings

The Winnenden incident is the latest in a string of school shootings in Germany in recent years.

In 2006, a masked man opened fire at a school in the western German town of Emsdetten, wounding at least eleven people before committing suicide.

In April 2002, a gunman killed 17 students and teachers before killing himself at a high school in the eastern city Erfurt in the worst such incident.

German politicians and community leaders were unanimous in condemning the latest shooting spree.

Ulrich Wilhelm, spokesman for the federal government in Berlin, told reporters that the Winnenden incident was "horrific" but that the police had done all they could.

Teenage Gunman Takes Own Life After German School Shooting | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 11.03.2009


It´s 3rd school shooting in Germany since 2002... :(

It´s terrible and feel really bad for the parents of victims... :tears:

Stuttgart is over one and half hour away from my area.



 
JamieLynn said:
I just learnt that one of my friends is leaving nearby the tiny village where this actually happened. The people are all over the place and everybody is confused at this boys acting. Many people state he was a calm and very unknown teenager. For all there is, other teenagers were even the ones nagging him...

Obviously the entire neighborhood didn't know anything about the parents owning like 18 guns at their home! In the village there are about 3000 people living there, so it's actually very small!

My friend also stated that she even heard the gunshots!!! :shock:

Jamie
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Yes, accord ZDF Spezial new on TV - interview with experts, teachers and students.

They don´t understand in the world why a quiet and shy teenager do that... - His father is a businessman and own many guns in his house and member of Rifle club.

They know him as a quiet and shy person, not aggresive person. They also know him as little boy as well... They talked most positive about him... they are total appalled after learn that it´s really HIM. They including neighborhoods are still shock.

In the house, he have dozen of killer computer games.

Experts and police officers are still focus and investigating because they never know in their life like that because a teenager never have any criminal record and no even trouble at school in the past.

The update news on TV will come again 40 minutes time... I am going to watch ...
 
Jiro said:
it's oxymoronic to tighten the laws just after couple of rare incidents. it's simple - look at the source of problem, not the gun. I see that German police has responded quickly to this situation.... I guess the world learned a thing or two from America.

this is why couple of states have legalized college students to carry concealed weapon to colleges. No matter what you do - banning and tightening it won't do SHIT. Shit happens. But what you can do is PREVENT it from getting worse.
Click to expand...

Accord "ZDF Spezial" news, they are consider to change from 18 years old to 21 years old. (During first school shooting in 2002, changed from 16 years old to 18 years old).

If anyone under 25 years old who want to buy gun then need to have their background check.


 
Very sad.

One is left shaking their head in disbelief when these things happen.
In Germany, In Alabama, In Illinois all within the last few days.

I am curious Liebling, Do these types of things open up a festering raging debate in Germany like it does here about guns and so on?
 
German warned of "barbecue" on eve of shootings

WINNENDEN, Germany (Reuters) – A teenager who killed 15 people in a shooting rampage in Germany on Wednesday warned in a chatroom the night before that he planned to go to his former school with weapons and stage a "proper barbecue."

In a chatroom discussion with another 17-year-old in Bavaria on the eve of the shooting spree, Tim Kretschmer gave an explicit warning of his deadly plan, said Heribert Rech, interior minister of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

"I've had enough," Rech quoted from the chatroom message.

"Always the same. Everybody's laughing at me. No one sees my potential. I'm serious. I have weapons and I will go to my former school in the morning and have a proper barbecue. Maybe I'll get away. Listen out. You will hear of me tomorrow. Remember the place's name: Winnenden."

Rech told reporters that Kretschmer's chatroom partner had not taken the message seriously at the time but had told his father after he saw reports of the shootings.

Kretschmer, described by neighbors as a loner with a fondness for violent videos, shot dead 12 people at his old school in the southern town of Winnenden and three more outside before turning the gun on himself when police cornered him.

Officials revealed on Thursday that Kretschmer had received psychiatric treatment for depression between April and September, before breaking off the sessions.

The motive for the attack remained unclear, although he seems to have targeted women. Eight of the nine students and all three of the teachers he killed in the school were female.

Investigators said on Thursday they had found pornographic pictures on his computer as well as violent video games.

German warned of "barbecue" on eve of shootings



Still very sad. Now the poor young person who realized too late that the boy was really going to do it will need counseling and help.

In another article on the subject, a police official said there has already been questioning and outcry for stronger gun laws. He stated that the gun laws in Germany are extremely strict and he does not see how they can be tightened.

I was hoping Liebling would have commented on that but at least the MSM is reporting some interviews with officials and citizens.
 
"In another article on the subject, a police official said there has already been questioning and outcry for stronger gun laws."

Interesting--what about an outcry for stronger laws against minors having access to pornography and violent video games? They too, were mentioned in the article. :hmm:

Of course, if the parents knew the boy had depression problems, they should have taken extra steps to prevent him from having access to the family guns. I realize today's teens are very crafty and sneaky, so the parents have to be extra vigilant when they know their child has a problem.

Stricter gun laws aren't the solution to school shootings. However, since Germany doesn't have our Constitution's Second Amendment, then their laws are up to them.
 
Liebling:-))) said:
Accord "ZDF Spezial" news, they are consider to change from 18 years old to 21 years old. (During first school shooting in 2002, changed from 16 years old to 18 years old).

If anyone under 25 years old who want to buy gun then need to have their background check.
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it's still useless. nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction by legislators after just one incident
 
I will response the posts later... I have to go now to watch TV news right now.




 
ASLGAL said:
Very sad.

One is left shaking their head in disbelief when these things happen.
In Germany, In Alabama, In Illinois all within the last few days.
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Yes, very sad :(


I am curious Liebling, Do these types of things open up a festering raging debate in Germany like it does here about guns and so on?
Click to expand...


I don´t think so because the guns is not common here in Germany. Maybe rare... :dunno:

They fixed high gun restriction after 1st school shooting in 2002. Nobody protest or debate over gun restriction but accept their knowledge that it´s about Youth protection..

We are real shock to learn that teenager´s father own many guns in his house because it´s not normal here in Germany... Accord TV news, all of guns, he own is legal. We wondering to ourselves why he own dozen of guns for? In the moment, there´re political debate over gun restriction after 3rd school shooting few days ago.
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