News German School Shooting

[Ark]

Energy transfer kills people. We should have mandatory checks for every energy transfer in nature and deep inspection of the energy packet.

Lousy kinetic energy!

 

[Urwumpe]

Interesting today: The police found dozens of really violent horror movies (which the guy should legally not own) in his room, and a single FPS computer game on his PC (CounterStrike, which he can legally own in Germany).

Of course, CounterStrike is responsible for turning him into a spree killer. To quote the director of the German foundation for crime prevention: "That the 17 year old fired shots while already on the run, is a behavior, which he can learn in computer games like Counterstrike or Crysis."

The autopilot for political discussion is already activated.

Of course, nobody listens to the witness report of a friend of the Erfurt killer: "He tested Counterstrike, but he did not like it."

Which is sure no surprise: If you have problems with social contacts and retreat more and more, playing social multiplayer games is sure not your taste.

 

[Ark]

Right, because nobody can grasp the concept of firing WHILE running without the aid of computer training.

 

[tblaxland]

Also, you will hardly find a country with more firearms per person than Switzerland. But it does not appear too prominent inside the statistics - in fact, it only has one spree killing at all in history.

And why is it so? Maybe because of attitudes like this:

[...]freedom EQUALS responsabiliy. The free man is willing - wanting - to answer for his actions.[...]We must learn to live as adults, taking responsability for our action because only a good dose of self-discipline can bring real security.[...]

Germany is a country with the strictest gun control laws in the world.

I thought our laws were tough, but I just did some reading and I believe you may be right.

 

[Eagle]

Are US flags supposed to fly at half-staff? I know German flags are. Can't find any official statements except by local representatives (regarding Alabama incident).

 

[Urwumpe]

New information from todays press conference: The attacker was in treatment in a psychological hospital five times and expected to be further treated ambulant, after the German Army discovered a currently unknown psychological disorder during their service assessment.

We have a symbolic draft here, all males which are older than 17 and out of school or just one year away from leaving school, have to attend such an assessment. Having a psychological disorder discovered on such an assessment is pretty unusual, as the tests concentrate on reactions and intelligence, as well as finding the tasks in the Army, which are most fitting for you. You only get a deeper psychological assessment if you apply for officers career.

In the German news channels, the illness is said to be depressions, which is not too unlikely considering the reports about his personality.

He also announced his killing spree hours before the attack in a German Internet chat, but without getting taken serious.

 

[Pilot7893]

Is this supposed to be a new fad? Is shooting up your school considered cool nowdays? Alright, let me get my AK-47.

 

[ar81]

Boy was 'arrogant, not aggressive'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7938484.stm

 

[Ark]

Boy was 'arrogant, not aggressive'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7938484.stm

Clearly nobody had a clue what was actually going on. Either that, or they didn't want to acknowledge it.

 

[Urwumpe]

He was certainly depressive. Combined with a strong frustration about feeling misunderstood or underestimated.

 

[Master of Blades]

"That the 17 year old fired shots while already on the run, is a behavior, which he can learn in computer games like Counterstrike or Crysis."

Here it goes again... CounterStrike (which is a bloody boring game anyway) does NOT teach you how to operate a gun, it is highly unrealistic and allows for such things as jumping and firing a heavy sniper rifle at the same time... If the killer learned from CounterStrike, he would not be capable of killing 16 persons, but rather shoot himself in the foot...

 

[Pilot7893]

but rather shoot himself in the foot...

Or in the groin, like that guy on Worlds Dumbest:lol:

 

[Urwumpe]

Here it goes again... CounterStrike (which is a bloody boring game anyway) does NOT teach you how to operate a gun, it is highly unrealistic and allows for such things as jumping and firing a heavy sniper rifle at the same time... If the killer learned from CounterStrike, he would not be capable of killing 16 persons, but rather shoot himself in the foot...

Additionally, Counterstrike is a social multiplayer game, which requires teamwork and cooperation. This important aspect as well as the general lack of gore in it, was the reason why it is legal for 16+ in Germany.

Not really a game to practice spree killings, and the killer of Erfurt actually found counterstrike very boring (because of the social aspect). What most politicians forget in the discussion, while concentrating on Counterstrike, is that the really evil FPS, which really have Spree killings and just plain violence as topic, are already unavailable for teenagers over legal ways.

 

[Moonwalker]

School massacres happen from time to time since the 1920's (bath School disaster, USA, - 45 dead). And in the 1960's, 16 were killed in the University of Texas. And so on... nothing new here, and no realtionship to modern mass media obviously. It won't be ever possible to prevent ill people going crazy even if everything would be banned. I do not feel sorry for them, as well as not for the sick bastard who did it yesterday. Why can't those madmen just take a rope and do it silently and quickly themself...

 

[T.Neo]

I do not feel sorry for them, as well as not for the sick bastard who did it yesterday. Why can't those madmen just take a rope and do it silently and quickly themself...

That attitude (you not feeling sorry for this guy, insensitivity in general) is why these things happen. Obviously you haven't been misunderstood and rejected by society. It can easily drive anyone to do things like this.

 

[Linguofreak]

Anybody who thinks videogames don't cause violence hasn't heard my mother threaten to put a mallet through the monitor after I've been playing Tetris for 16 hours straight...

 

[bujin]

Interesting today: The police found dozens of really violent horror movies (which the guy should legally not own) in his room, and a single FPS computer game on his PC (CounterStrike, which he can legally own in Germany).

Of course, CounterStrike is responsible for turning him into a spree killer. To quote the director of the German foundation for crime prevention: "That the 17 year old fired shots while already on the run, is a behavior, which he can learn in computer games like Counterstrike or Crysis."

That was always going to happen - it always does in things like this. The Dunblane shootings back in 1996 were blamed on Doom, and even the 9/11 attacks were blamed on Microsoft Flight Simulator!

What they always fail to mention are the millions upon millions of people who play computer games who don't go on mad killing sprees. What that points to is not the game being at fault, but the person who commits the horrible murderous acts are actually mentally imbalanced and cannot tell reality from fantasy. They are probably just as likely to go on their killing spree after reading a violent book or watching a violent film.

In yesterday's case, with the latest information, the kid was probabbly just depressed or victimised in some way. It's just a shame he had to take out his frustration on so many innocent people who had nothing to do with his problems.

I'm glad the SOB is dead. Just wish he'd suffered a bit more than he did.

---------- Post added at 05:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:50 PM ----------

That attitude (you not feeling sorry for this guy, insensitivity in general) is why these things happen. Obviously you haven't been misunderstood and rejected by society. It can easily drive anyone to do things like this.

And before anyone applies this logic to my post above, I can say that I have not exactly had the easiest of lives - probably not too dissimilar to the guy in Germany yesterday. I have also played computer games since I was 5 years old. I have even felt suicidal on occasion. But I have never considered harming anyone else - even the people who picked on me all through school.

 

[Moonwalker]

That attitude (you not feeling sorry for this guy, insensitivity in general) is why these things happen. Obviously you haven't been misunderstood and rejected by society. It can easily drive anyone to do things like this.

I don't think it can drive anyone to do things like this. Otherwise schools would be full of shooters.

 

[Hielor]

And before anyone applies this logic to my post above, I can say that I have not exactly had the easiest of lives - probably not too dissimilar to the guy in Germany yesterday. I have also played computer games since I was 5 years old. I have even felt suicidal on occasion. But I have never considered harming anyone else - even the people who picked on me all through school.

:hesaid:

 

[Moonwalker]

What they always fail to mention are the millions upon millions of people who play computer games who don't go on mad killing sprees.

Yes. World of Warcraft alone has 11,5 million users/customers meanwhile (including me since March 2005 ). And that is only one example within the jungle of computer games. Most games, if not all, are not at all helpful to become a real killer/shooter, become able to hit targets less than ever. And that is actually the point: almost all young school shooters had experiences and access to real weapons. This is actually the most conspicuous fact. And I think they are not normal anyway, which is not only caused by the environment, but may be caused by some biological/genetic reasons too. Normal people would not decide to take weapons and kill, less than ever at an age of 17. Depressions are not only and always caused by "others"...