School shooting in Kauhajoki - Eleven dead, many injured; Where are we heading?

Eleven people, apparently all students, have been killed in a shooting incident and fire at a vocational school in Kauhajoki in Western Finland. Several others have been injured. Details are still sketchy, but apparently a 22-year-old man dressed in black and wearing a ski-mask entered the school carrying a large bag, and opened fire on students at around 11 a.m. on Tuesday morning. An eyewitness spoke of many rounds of automatic fire in a ground-floor classroom containing adult students taking an exam. Police at the scene immediately reported several fatalities, but the true death-toll was only made clear some hours after the incident. The building has been evacuated, and the gunman - thought to have acted alone - shot himself in the head after his killing spree.

The man, named as Matti Juhani Saari, was rushed to hospital in Tampere, but died at around 5 p.m., so becoming the 11th fatality of the incident. It is believed that Saari shot nine people, and that one other fatality may have succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning following a fire that broke out during the shooting. At least one person with gunshot wounds remains in a serious condition in hospital. Most of the injured persons suffered only minor injuries, in many cases while trying to make their escape from the school building. Around 150 students and staff-members were in the building at the time of the shooting. Part of the school caught fire, possibly through the actions of the gunman, but firefighters put the blaze out.

As noted above, the fire may have been the cause for at least one fatality, and police have not completely ruled out the possibility of further casualties coming to light. The tragic incident is bound to re-open wounds from last November's hugely traumatic shooting at Jokela High School, when a deranged youth killed eight before turning his gun on himself. It is also certain to prompt discussion of firearms and their availability - the country has one of the highest levels of gun ownership in the world but has hitherto been spared the sort of firearms mayhem more traditionally associated with the United States. Equally, given the close proximity of the Jokela shootings, and the memory of the similar death and destruction wrought by another troubled young man in 2002 at the Myyrmanni shopping mall bombing, it will almost inevitably provoke analysis of what is wrong with Finnish society in general and its young males in particular, and a search for ways of preventing the kind of marginalisation that can lead to mind-numbing acts such as these.

In a grim reminder of what happened in Jokela in November last year, reports are already surfacing of videos on YouTube allegedly depicting a young man from Kauhajoki firing pistols at a shooting range. As is now all too well known, a similar connection was made with the young man who opened fire at Jokela High School. Members of the Finnish government have met in special session to assess the situation. The Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE reports that Education Minister Sari Sarkomaa, Minister of the Interior Anne Holmlund, and Minister of Health and Social Services Paula Risikko are meeting to discuss the shooting in Kauhajoki. The chairs of the various parliamentary groups as well as police and other officials are also to be present. (Adapted from Helsingin Sanomat News)

Everyone accepts that this news is very tragic and unfortunate, but it is the time to think about why such incidents are recurring all over the world time and again. I was in Finland when last year, a similar incident took place in Jokela, a nearby town of Helsinki. For me, the shooter did not seem like a maniac, but a depressed philosopher. I was stunned when I read that letter by him. I am posting that letter again here, so that you can read it and see how a person with such intellectual insight could turn to be a suicide attacker. It is a question that perhaps we as sane people should start answering.

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Jokela_High_School_Massacre

Name: Pekka-Eric Auvinen

Age: 18Male from Finland.

I am a cynical existentialist, antihuman humanist, antisocial socialdarwinist, realistic idealist and godlike atheist.

SI VIS PACEM, PARA BELLUM! JUSTITIA SUUM CUIQUE DISTRIBUIT! SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!

I am prepared to fight and die for my cause. I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection.

You might ask yourselves, why did I do this and what do I want. Well, most of you are too arrogant and closed-minded to understand... You will proprably say me that I am"insane", "crazy", "psychopath", "criminal" or crap like that. No, the truth is that I am just an animl, a human, an individual, a dissident.

I have had enough. I don't want to be part of this fucked up society. Like some other wise people have said in the past, human race is not worth fighting for or saving... only worth killing. But... When my enemies will run and hide in fear when mentioning my name... When the gangsters of the corrupted governments have been shot in the streets... When the rule of idioracy and the democratic system has been replaced with justice... When intelligent people are finally free and rule the society instead of the idiocratic rule of majority... In that great day of deliverance, you will know what I want.

Long live the revolution... revolution against the system, which enslaves not only the majority of weak-minded masses but also the small minority of strong-minded and intelligent individuals! If we want to live in a different world, we must act. We must rise against the enslaving, corrupted and totalitarian regimes and overthrow the tyrants, gangsters and the rule of idiocracy. I can't alone change much but hopefully my actions will inspire all the intelligent people of the world and start some sort of revolution against the current systems. The system discriminating naturality and justice, is my enemy. The people living in the world of delusion and supporting this system are my enemies.

I am ready to die for a cause I know is right, just and true... even if I would lose or the battle would be only remembered as evil... I will rather fight and die than live a long and unhappy life.

And remember that this is my war, my ideas and my plans. Don't blame anyone else for my actions than myself. Don't blame my parents or my friends. I told nobody about my plans and I always kept them inside my mind only. Don't blame the movies I see, the music I hear, the games I play or the books I read. No, they had nothing to do with this. This is my war: one man war against humanity, governments and weak-minded masses of the world! No mercy for the scum of the earth! HUMANITY IS OVERRATED! It's time to put NATURAL SELECTION & SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST back on tracks!

Justice renders to everyone his due.Country: FinlandOccupation: Unemployed Philosopher, OutcastCompanies: Human Race (evolved one step above though)Interests and Hobbies: Existentialism, Freedom, Truth, Misantrophy, Social / Personality Psychology, Evolution Science, Political Incorrectness, Women, BDSM, Guns (I love you Catherine), Shooting, Computer Games, Sarcasm, Irony, Mass / Serial Killers, Macabre Art, Black Comedy, AbsurdismMovies and Shows: The Matrix, A View To A Kill, Falling Down, Natural Born Killers, Reservoir Dogs, Last Man Standing, Full Metal Jacket, Dr. Butcher MD (aka Zombie Holocaust), Saw 1-3, Lord Of War, The Deer Hunter, True Romance, The Untouchables, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Idiocracy, They Live, Apocalypse Now, End Of Days, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Dr. Strangelove, House MD (TV), Monty Python, TV Documentaries Relating To HistoryMusic: KMFDM, Rammstein, Eisbrecher, Nine Inch Nails, Grendel, Impaled Nazarene, Macabre, Deathstars, The Prodigy, Combichrist, Godsmack, Slayer, Children Of Bodom, Alice Cooper, Sturmgeist, Suicide Commando, Hatebreed, Suffocation, Terrorizer