Pekka-Eric Auvinen, described by police as a bullied 18-year-old outcast, opened fire at his high school in southern Finland on Nov. 7, killing six students, a school nurse and the principal before ending his own life.



Not our guy, I hope! XD

A post from Mithrandir? That has been forever!

Anyway... can't be our guy.




Right?

Pekka Soderval (Raven) works for Nokia. I think that Pekka is about the equivalent to Peter in North America - very common.

I know, it's been half a year, right?



Anyone know a good (and cheap) babysitter??

EDIT: Hi Al!

*rubs eyes... blinks...* It is Mithy! Good to know you're still out there.

I'm a very cheap babysitter, by the way... In fact, if you agree to let me subject your child's mind to non-stop Eol-isms, I don't charge a darn thing. Spreading the madness is all the reward I need.

Hey Mith. *waves*

This totally isn't a welcoming thread . But hello Mithy!

OP: Another one? It's really a very sad state that this keeps happening. Also, good to hear it's not *our* Pekka, not that I thought it was.

Mithy my dear, what's this all about?
Roger's very much right. Pekka is quite a common name in Finland. (too much so, if you ask me) Good to know I'm in your thoughts still though.

Indeed, this terrible school shooting incident took place last November, but unfortunately that's old news. There was another one only six days ago in Kauhajoki. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kauhajoki_school_shooting

The whole country's pretty much been in a shock for the last week. Gladly that's only the third recorded incident in Finland. But when you consider the fact that we've only got a bit over 5 million people and compare that to USA, it would mean a 100 cases in the states in a year. Some statistics said that USA has had 42 school shooting incidents during the last 12 years. And with the two in Finland, we're still worse off considering the number of Finns there are.

With 2.6 million guns, we're pretty high on the list of guns/capita. Only USA and Yemen are ahead of us...

Now I don't want to turn this thread into an anti-gun campaign or an argument whether privately owned handguns should be allowed or not, but if this latest murderer hadn't had his pistol, 11 people would still be alive.

You're absolutely right.

14 years ago now (I think) there was a school shooting in Dunblane in Scotland, and after really tight controls were imposed on all firearms, such a thing has never been repeated.

Sure knives are a lot more prevalent than they once were, but you can't kill multiple people with a knife.