Jokela secondary school shooting in Tuusula, Finland
I heard the news headlines just before six this evening and anxiously waited through the Simpsons and Friends until I finally was able to watch some news coverage on the incident that happened in small southern Finnish town of Tuusula just before noon today.
An 18-year-old young man, about to take his Finnish equivalent of the A-levels this year, shot dead 7 students (two girls, five boys) and the headmaster of Jokela secondary school before shooting himself to head. He is currently in critical condition and being treated in one of the hospitals in Helsinki.
The young man is apparently a keen gun fan. There were several videos on YouTube, posted by the shooter himself, showing him "testing" his gun and posing with the gun. Apparently last night he posted a video/blog entry on internet with details of the planned incident with a title "Jokela high school massacre 07.11.07". (YouTube has since deleted his account.) According to the news sources (Channel Four, BBC, Yle, Iltalehti, Ilta-Sanomat) the videos and blogs the young man posted on Internet were largely describing his hatred towards humanity and the society.
In his "testament" posted in Finnish Internet community IRC-galleria the young man declared the hatred he was filled with, hatred that he claimed to love. He stated he is an existentialist and wishes to take full responsibility of his act, he pleaded his family, friends or the books and films he read or watched to not to be blamed for his action, neither did he want to blame on the games he played. He is clearly an intelligent young man, a well read deep thinker who, had he chosen another path to express his frustration or encourage change in society, could have made a more positive impact in the world. Sadly, now he will only be remembered as a brutal murderer.
This whole incident came as a great shock to me, and undoubtedly to the whole Finnish nation. We are very peace-loving people. This is a unique incident in the history of my country. Even though Finland has the third highest gun ownership, guns are used only in 14% of all homicides. Most violence that happens in Finland is alcohol or drug related and, sadly, domestic.
I wish to express my condolence to the families of both the young gun man and his victims. I am currently burning incence (as I have no candles in the house) as a silent prayer for all those who died in the incident, and have been notified by a Finnish friend to light a candle tomorrow evening 18:00 Finnish time (4pm GMT) for the memory of the victims.
I invite all of you who read this to light a candle with me tomorrow evening at 4pm and state your quiet prayers for the world of tomorrow to be a better place where incidents like this do not happen.
An 18-year-old young man, about to take his Finnish equivalent of the A-levels this year, shot dead 7 students (two girls, five boys) and the headmaster of Jokela secondary school before shooting himself to head. He is currently in critical condition and being treated in one of the hospitals in Helsinki.
The young man is apparently a keen gun fan. There were several videos on YouTube, posted by the shooter himself, showing him "testing" his gun and posing with the gun. Apparently last night he posted a video/blog entry on internet with details of the planned incident with a title "Jokela high school massacre 07.11.07". (YouTube has since deleted his account.) According to the news sources (Channel Four, BBC, Yle, Iltalehti, Ilta-Sanomat) the videos and blogs the young man posted on Internet were largely describing his hatred towards humanity and the society.
In his "testament" posted in Finnish Internet community IRC-galleria the young man declared the hatred he was filled with, hatred that he claimed to love. He stated he is an existentialist and wishes to take full responsibility of his act, he pleaded his family, friends or the books and films he read or watched to not to be blamed for his action, neither did he want to blame on the games he played. He is clearly an intelligent young man, a well read deep thinker who, had he chosen another path to express his frustration or encourage change in society, could have made a more positive impact in the world. Sadly, now he will only be remembered as a brutal murderer.
This whole incident came as a great shock to me, and undoubtedly to the whole Finnish nation. We are very peace-loving people. This is a unique incident in the history of my country. Even though Finland has the third highest gun ownership, guns are used only in 14% of all homicides. Most violence that happens in Finland is alcohol or drug related and, sadly, domestic.
I wish to express my condolence to the families of both the young gun man and his victims. I am currently burning incence (as I have no candles in the house) as a silent prayer for all those who died in the incident, and have been notified by a Finnish friend to light a candle tomorrow evening 18:00 Finnish time (4pm GMT) for the memory of the victims.
I invite all of you who read this to light a candle with me tomorrow evening at 4pm and state your quiet prayers for the world of tomorrow to be a better place where incidents like this do not happen.