EGN NEWS DESK
The 12-year-old boy who opened hearth at his college in Finland on Tuesday, killing a schoolmate and injuring two others, has provided a proof for the taking pictures: He was bullied.
The police mentioned the motive emerged throughout interviews with the coed, who had transferred to his college, north of Helsinki, originally of the calendar yr. After the taking pictures, the police mentioned, the boy additionally threatened college students heading to a different college.
The boy, who can’t be criminally charged due to his age, was positioned within the custody of social welfare authorities, the police mentioned.
“This incident is deeply upsetting,” Finland’s training minister, Anna-Maja Henriksson, mentioned in an interview on Wednesday. “We should do extra within the society to stop bullying.”
A variety of public officers mentioned it was too early to know precisely what set off the taking pictures, which resulted within the demise of one other 12-year-old boy and accidents to 2 women of the identical age. But many joined in calling for extra concerted efforts to handle psychological well being issues amongst younger folks, and to fight college bullying.
In the Finnish information media, one editorial referred to as for “an iron grip on the illness of kids and younger folks,” and others demanded extra assurances from the authorities about college security. The Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat printed pointers to report bullying, as a result of “the accountability all the time lies with adults.”
A 2023 authorities survey confirmed that about eight p.c of younger folks reported being bullied in Finland, a rise over the earlier yr.
“We have accomplished a number of issues to make issues higher,” mentioned Katri Kalske, a deputy mayor for training within the metropolis of Vantaa, the place the taking pictures occurred, citing the introduction of classes about youngsters’s feelings and different initiatives.
“Sadly,” she added, “They haven’t.”
Tightening gun possession legal guidelines has been all however absent from the talk in Finland, which has one of many highest charges of firearm possession in Europe.
Finland has about one gun for each three folks, in line with the 2018 Small Arms Survey, however its fee of firearms-related deaths is a small fraction of that within the United States, in line with the World Population Review.
The discrepancy, consultants say, stems from Finland’s tight rules over who can acquire a weapon, and from the 2 nations’ contrasting cultures.
Finland’s intensive gun possession is said to its deeply ingrained searching tradition and its sporting habits, they are saying, slightly a way that it’s a basic proper aimed toward self-protection.
Permits for firearms may be granted solely to individuals who can exhibit “a suitable function of use” and are thought-about match primarily based on their well being and habits. Many pistol and revolver house owners should additionally show that they continued practising searching or taking pictures sports activities to maintain their license.
“In common our management is working fairly nicely and gun security is at a excessive stage,” mentioned Mika Lehtonen, the chief of firearms administration for the nationwide police.
Still, questions remained over how a 12-year-old little one gained management of a gun.
The police mentioned that the weapon was a revolver that belonged to an in depth relative, and so they had been investigating how the kid got here to own it. That may lead to a violation for the licensed proprietor.
