Massacre in a German School

[Paul Mackin]

Can well imagine how much Erfurt has changed since reunification. Remember
wandering though old city streets and a park at midnight. Lots of people about
having a good time but narry a light to see by. Conserving energy no doubt.
Like other towns in the East, Ergurt in 1969 still had the look and feel of
preWWII Europe. But of course no more.

P.

Otto wrote:

> http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,706189,00.html
> New gun law call as city mourns
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,706208,00.html
> (with some additional information about European gun laws)
>
> kwp wrote:
> > "We'll get your "progress" with a delay of four or five years."
> >
> > "Such a massacre never happened in Germany before... we had "little"
> > massacres with two, four or five victims, but 18 (including the runner
> amok
> > who killed himself) - this is new...
> > he was a nineteen-year-old-guy, returning to the school where he was
> thrown
> > out some months before and killed with a pumpgun 15 teachers, 2 girl
> > students and himself."
> >
>
> The mere fact that something like this happens is worrying, and every single
> case must be looked upon individually. To speak generally of a new quality I
> don't think that the death toll or the question where it happens are the
> decisive factors. Even one of the hardest gun laws in the world could not
> prevent it, that's disturbing us.
>
> We are always pointing to America, to tv and pc games, we are not surprised
> to see such things happening where people have easy access to guns, but not
> "here" where you have to develop a certain amount of criminal energy, where
> you must have criminal contacts and enough money to get a pumpgun. You
> cannot simply go to the next whorehouse, put 10.000 Euro on the table and
> ask your local pimp for it, like the movies are telling us.
>
> My father delivered his WW-2 Beretta to the police station when he moved to
> an old-age home some weeks before his death, otherwise it would have been
> part of my heritage . . . I didn't even knew that he had had one at home,
> btw illegally from 1945 up to the 70s.
>
> "Nach Angaben des Innenministeriums waren 2001 in Deutschland 7,2 Millionen
> Waffen legal im Besitz von 2,3 Millionen Personen. Darunter waren 650.000
> Sportschützen und 350.000 Jäger. Bei den restlichen 1,3 Millionen
> Waffenbesitzern handelte es sich überwiegend um Erben von Waffen und
> Personen, deren Waffenbesitz im Zuge von zwei Amnestien in den siebziger
> Jahren legalisiert worden war. Die Zahl der Personen, die aus
> Sicherheitsgründen Waffen tragen dürfen, lag im vergangenen Jahr bei rund
> 15.000. Pro Jahr werden rund 2000 illegale Waffen beschlagnahmt."
> http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,193907,00.html
>
> Coincidentally the German Bundestag was talking about & passed a more strict
> (ha ha, due to a *compromise* already weakened) gun law precisely at the
> time when the incident happened, and the notorious pro-hunter Christian
> Democrats did not take *off* some "nasty" commentaries against the
> government's proposals from their website yesterday. It goes without saying
> that the "new" law is a joke:
>
> WaffRNeuRegG
> http://dip.bundestag.de/btd/14/077/1407758.pdf
>
> http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,193907,00.html
> http://www.cducsu.de/ <presse> <pressemitteilungen>
> 26. April 2002
> Norbert Geis, Hartmut Koschyk
> Waffenrecht: Rot-grün in letzter Minute bekehrt
> Vom Saulus zum Paulus mutiert
>
> I wonder what they say now. I bet it sounds a bit like Nunc Ives Le Spark.
>
> Otto