8 dead in Finnish school shooting "planned on YouTube"

[Chacor]

HELSINKI, Finland (CNN) -- At least eight people were killed when an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at a school in Finland Wednesday, according to Finnish police. The shooting appeared to have been planned out in graphic videos posted on Internet file-sharing site YouTube.

Medical officials told CNN affiliate MTV that the headmistress of the school in Tuusula, near Helsinki, was among the dead.

The suspected shooter is in a critical condition at Toolo Hospital, Dr. Eeero Hirvensalo told CNN. He did not say how the suspect was injured, although The Associated Press reported police sources who said he had tried to take his own life.

At least 12 people sustained minor injuries and "are in no danger now," Hirvensalo added.

The shooting, believed to be the first of its kind in Finland's history, was claimed to be the work of Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who has also published a manifesto demanding war on the "weak-minded masses" and pledged to die for his cause.

YouTube appeared to have removed 89 videos linked to his account, many of them featuring Nazi imagery, shortly after the incident.

The school involved in the shooting was identified as Jokela High, attended by more than 400 students, aged between 12 and 18.

Finnish media reported someone posted a message two weeks ago on YouTube, warning of a bloodbath at the school.

A video posted earlier Wednesday, by "Sturmgeist89", was titled "Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007." "Sturmgeist89" identified himself as Auvinen, and said he chose the name "Sturmgeist" because it means "storm spirit" in German.

The video showed a picture of the school, which then disintegrated to reveal two images of Auvinen against a red background, pointing a gun at the screen.

The clip is accompanied by the track "Stray Bullet", by rock band KMFDM, whose lyrics were also quoted by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the students behind the Columbine High School massacre of 1999.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europ ... index.html

[Cryomaniac]

I think the phrase 'planned on youtube' is a little misleading, because it implies that youtube is somehow to blame. Clearly this guy would have done this whether or not youtube had existed.

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

This might be too political; however I feel it need to to be said, thus I apologize beforehand:

I find this almost funny because most extreme left wing people I know, or commentators I hear speak on TV, always hold up the very liberal laws of countries like Finland, Norway and Denmark as examples of how all us evil bigoted North Americans should be living our lives. Yet first Denmark had a guy beheaded by an extremist immigrant on a busy street in the middle of the day, and now we have this Finish kid committing a massacre just like use evil Westerners.

The point being that complex problems usually require complex solutions. Rather than the knee jerk reactions that certain people have when it comes to this type of tragedy. This usually manifests itself (at least in the USA) in the form of purposed extremist left wing policies; e.g. ban all private fire arms. What is needed is targeted solutions, and a mix of smart right wing and left wing laws, rather than an extreme uncompromising policy swing one way or the other.

[Brent]

I heard earlier how "it always happens in the U.S. but never here"

There was a time when people here said that about horrible events that happened elsewhere. Terrorism comes to mind...

[Ptarmigan]

Mass murder is widely defined as at least 3 to 4 in one place in a 24 hour period. Since 1960s, I estimate around 100 shootng sprees that claimed at least 4 people. That includes in commission of another crime. I tend to believe why America sees a lot of mass shootings is because many people are transients and feel they have no sense of community and roots in that area they live in. As a result, they feel alienated. Americans tend to move a lot, especially in Western states, where on average they move 11 times in their life. Also, America is very heterogenous in terms of population. Japan and South Korea doesn't see as many mass murder, even though it has its fair share of it. They are more homogenous in terms of population and culture. I think modern life puts more stress on people. Mass murder has happened before, mostly a father killing is whole family in rural areas. I truly believe mass murderers are influenced by other mass murderers, hence copycat affect. Seung-Hui Cho mentioned Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold in his manifesto and called them martyrs.