A spate of school killings in Western Europe has raised pressure on authorities to tackle a problem long seen as a largely U.S. phenomenon, increasing momentum for tougher gun and security laws and more policing of social media.
While mass shootings remain far more common in the United States, four of the worst school shootings in Western Europe this century have occurred since 2023 and two - a massacre of 11 people in Austria and another in Sweden - were this year.
This week’s killings in the Austrian city of Graz sparked calls for tighter gun laws by political leaders, mirroring the response of the Swedish government after the 11 deaths at the Campus Risbergska school in Orebro in February.
Nope. It’s the guns. People have a hard time hate-killing dozens of other people with their bare hands
It’s the hate that’s the problem! You don’t fix a problem without addressing the ROOT cause. Hate is the root cause!
Terrorist attack last week in Boulder. The guy tried to buy a gun and was denied. Dude prepped molotov cocktails, threw two of them, realized hurting random civilians is wrong and started putting out the fires. None dead.
Would’ve been totally different if he had a gun
Stop trying to sanewash this lunatic. Agreed it would have been much worse with a gun, but let’s not pretend he had a change of heart and wanted to help.
https://boulderreportinglab.org/2025/06/02/live-updates-boulder-terror-attack-at-pearl-street-walk-for-hostages/
I guess I’m wrong? Would it have been better if he had a gun?
European countries already have absurdly tight gun control; more of that would simply be barking up the wrong tree. Also, as France found out recently, when there are no guns other lethal weapons—like knives—are used instead, and don’t even get me started on pipe bombs.
So you’re advocating that EU nations should import the 2nd Amendment because (checks notes) knives and pipe bombs??
Jayzuz buddy. You got some issues.
To be fair he didn’t specifically advocate for that. He has some valid points in regards to better social systems leading to more tolerance and therefore less brutality. I just think that systemic issues take an increadibly long to solve, even with enough supporters. Weapon control is a valid counter measure which seems to work for the most part in the mean time.
According to the article, we’re currently seeing it not work. And European governments’ first instinct was/is to pass harsher gun control, and in France’s case even knife control. There’s a point where reasonable controls and vetting processes do non-superficially reduce gun violence, but this is very much a diminishing returns affair, so frankly there’s no way this upcoming set of laws is going to do much good. You also say “in the meantime,” but how long is “the meantime” supposed to be? A decade? Two decades? Half a century? When do we accept that it’s unacceptable for society to bring up kids to want to commit mass civilian violence and actually do something about it?
PS: Tighter gun control also alienates people who want guns for perfectly legal reasons; I’m not sure how prevalent this is in Europe, but for instance this is a major unforced error Canada’s Liberals are making. This is a very real concern with fascism knocking on most of Europe’s front door.
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