There was another Columbine-style school shooting last week and it occurred in Scandinavia, a country seemingly immune to such violence.
An 18-year-old Finnish student with a gun walked into his high school and killed seven students and the principal. When confronted by police, the gunman took his life, reported FoxNews.com. It happened in Tuusula, 30 miles from the capital in Helsinki.
Apparently, the gunman had posted a manifesto on ”YouTube,” which included him firing a semiautomatic handgun.
The teen killed five boys, two girls and the female principal with a .22-caliber pistol, police said. One person was wounded by gunfire and 12 others cut themselves while fleeing the school in a frenzy. More than 400 students were in the building at the time.
The teenage gunman had no criminal record, said Police Chief Matti Tohkanen. "He was from an ordinary family." However, the gunman belonged to a gun club and obtained a license Oct. 19 to buy the gun used in the attack.
While gun ownership is common in Finland deadly rampages are not. The last such instance, according to Finnish media, was in 1989, when a 14-year-old boy shot and killed two classmates who had teased him.
Tuusula is a quiet community with 34,000 people. "Mostly nothing happens here. There aren’t any criminals to talk of. This was a total surprise," said Reijo Pekka, whose son, Arttu Siltala was at the school.
Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said the shooting was "extremely tragic" and declared it a day of national mourning.
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