Finland is in a state of mourning today after yesterday’s tragic school massacre. The gunman entered the vocational school he was a student at in the town of Kauhajoki in western Finland and killed nine fellow students, seemingly indiscriminately.
Newsroom Finland reports that police took the shooter to Tampere University Hospital with what was believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, but he later died. Police have named the gunman as 20 year-old Matti Juhani Saari, who was questioned on Monday concerning an internet video of him shooting a gun; however police felt there was not enough evidence to revoke his gun licence.
The tragedy occurred less than a year after eight pupils and staff were killed by another student in a shooting spree in southern Finland.
Finland has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world, combined with Europe’s second-highest suicide rate. However, Finland is a highly developed Nordic country with Scandinavian values and beliefs. These two attacks have come as an almost unprecedented national shock in such a generally safe country.
