# At least 10 killed in German school shooting



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

By OLIVER SCHMALE, Associated Press Writer Oliver Schmale, Associated Press Writer - 11 mins ago









 
Wed Mar 11, 6:45 AM ET

An armed police officer stands in front of the Albertville school in Winnenden near Stuttgart, Germany, Wednesday, March 11, 2009. Police say a gunman dressed in a black combat uniform opened fire at a high school in southern Germany on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people and injuring others before fleeing the scene.(AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle)

WINNENDEN, Germany - A gunman opened fire randomly at a high school in southern Germany on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people and injuring others before fleeing the scene, police said.
Germany's n-tv reported that police said the suspect was dressed in a black combat uniform.
Regional police spokesman Klaus Hinderer said students were among the 10 killed, but he had no further details.
The shooter entered Albertville high school in Winnenden at 9:30 a.m. and opened fire, shooting at random, before fleeing, police said.
Police warned area residents not to pick up anyone in their cars as they searched for the suspect, described by Germany's N24 television as a 17-year-old former student who was known to police.
Hinderer could not confirm media reports that the shooter was a former student at the school.
Hinderer said the suspect fled toward the center of Winnenden, a town of 28,000, Hinderer said. The school was evacuated.
About 1,000 children attend the school, located in a suburb some 12 miles (20 kilometers) northeast of Stuttgart.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090311/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_school_attack


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*After attacks, Europe hurries to tighten gun laws*

By MATTI HUUHTANEN, Associated Press Writer Matti Huuhtanen, Associated Press Writer - 2 hrs 4 mins ago

HELSINKI - Several European countries have restricted gun laws in the wake of school massacres, gang violence and other gun-related crimes:

_Finland announced plans Wednesday to impose stricter restrictions on firearms, including raising the minimum age for handgun ownership from 15 to 20. The proposal was prompted by two school massacres within a year in which lone gunmen opened fire on classmates and teachers.

_Germany, where a gunman killed at least 11 people Wednesday, raised the legal age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21 following a 2002 shooting in Erfurt that killed 16 people, including 12 teachers.

_Belgian lawmakers passed strict new gun control laws in 2006 in reaction to the racially motivated shooting deaths of a toddler and her black baby sitter in Antwerp.

_Swiss citizens are demanding a referendum aimed at confining army weapons to military compounds and banning private purchases of pump-action rifles and automatic weapons - following a spate of suicides and homicides.

_The Portuguese Parliament is currently discussing a government proposal to tighten gun laws, including denying bail to anyone suspected of a gun crime.

_Denmark's government said last week it will raise the penalty for illegal gun possession as part of a crackdown on gang violence that has killed three people and injured 25 in recent months.

_European Union lawmakers proposed tighter gun control across the bloc last year, including guidelines saying that only people over 18 not deemed a threat to public safety could buy and keep guns. EU members have until 2010 to adopt the measures.

In addition, some U.S. states have recently tightened gun laws as well:

• Colorado, a year after the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, made it a felony to buy a firearm for another person who should know the transaction is illegal, barred anyone from giving a firearm to a juvenile without the consent of the parents; made it illegal for a person not to try to prevent a juvenile from committing a gun crime; and increased the penalty for possession of a weapon by a felon.
But three years later, the state expanded gun rights instead, by requiring sheriffs to issue gun permits to people who pass a criminal background check, prohibiting local governments from making gun laws more restrictive than the state's, and abolishing local registries of gun owners.

• In Virginia, where a student killed 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007 before committing suicide April 16, 2007, the governor signed an executive order requiring that anyone ordered by a court to get mental health treatment be added to a database of people barred from buying guns.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090311/ap_on_re_eu/eu_europe_gun_laws_1


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

German school shooter warned of attack

By Vanessa Gera 
Associated Press

WAIBLINGEN, Germany - The 17-year-old gunman who went on a rampage at his former school and killed 15 people before taking his own life warned of his plans in an Internet chatroom only hours before, officials said Thursday.
Suspect Tim K. told others in the chat room that he was "sick of this life" and planned to attack his school in Winnenden, Baden Wuerttemburg state Interior Minister Heribert Rech said.
Rech said the suspect wrote, "You will hear from me tomorrow, remember the name of a place called Winnenden."
In the first indication of a motive in the shooting, Rech said the teenager told others in the German-language chat room that: "Everyone laughs at me, nobody recognizes my potential."
"I'm serious, I have a weapon here," Rech said the youth wrote. "Tomorrow I will go to my school."
Rech said that the chat had occurred the night before the attack, but a police official, Erwin Hetger, later said it was in the early morning Wednesday, about six hours before the 9:30 a.m. shooting.
A Bavarian man told police about the chat after the school shooting in Winnenden had taken place, Rech said. He told authorities his 17-year-old son only told him about it after seeing the news reports and had not taken the threat seriously.
Despite the high death toll, the shooting could have been worse if the principal of the high school had not been able to warn teachers with a prearranged code over the public address system when the suspect burst into the school.
According to media reports, after the suspect entered the school in Winnenden on Wednesday morning and opened fire, the principal put the emergency plan in effect, quickly broadcasting a coded message to teachers: "Frau Koma is coming," students said.
"Then our teacher closed the door and said we should close the windows and sit on the floor," a student, identified only as Kim S., told ZDF television.
In German the word "amoklauf" is used to describe school shootings, and "koma" is the reverse of the word "amok." Hetger said the coded alert was worked out by German educators after a deadly school shooting in Erfurt in 2002 as a way to warn teachers.
Local media have identified the gunman as Tim Kretschmer and the name on his parent's home was Kretschmer.
After he escaped from the school Wednesday, he hijacked a car and was eventually caught in a police shootout. The rampage ended with 15 victims slain and the assailant taking his own life, authorities said.
The high school was closed Thursday, still cordoned off by red and white police tape as investigators pored through the building. Scores of candles lit by mourners adorned the grounds amid bunches of flowers and notes with messages and questions like "Why?"
A man carried a sign saying, "God: Where were you?"
The government ordered all federal buildings to fly their flags at half staff, and schools across the country held moments of silence for the victims. Germany's national soccer league, the Bundesliga, said players would wear black armbands in upcoming games.
Authorities still have not given any indication of the gunman's motive. His victims were primarily female: eight of nine students killed were girls, and all three teachers were women. Three men were killed later by the suspect as he fled.
Injured student Patrick S., 15, was quoted by Bild newspaper as saying Kretschmer burst into his German class at about 9:30 a.m.
"We flipped over the desks to duck behind for cover. ... Suddenly I saw that I was hit - in the back, in the arm and in the cheek," he was quoted as saying. "Suddenly he was gone and we barricaded the door. And then I saw my classmate Chantal. She sat at the door. Dead."
Local police spokesman Nik Brenner said that authorities had found 60 shell casings in the school.
Friends and acquaintances described Kretschmer as a loner who liked guns and violent video games.
A 17-year-old who would give only his first name, Aki, said he had been studying this year with the shooter at a private business school, and described him as a quiet, reserved person.
Aki said the two played poker together, both in person and online, as well as a multiplayer video game called "Counter-Strike" that involves killing people to complete missions. He was good at it, Aki said.
Brenner said that authorities had searched Kretschmer's computer and found violent video games on it, but was not more specific.
The dark-haired teen, shown wearing glasses in pictures on German television, apparently took the weapon from his father's collection of 15 firearms along with a "multitude of ammunition," police said. His father, a businessman, was a member of the local gun club and kept the weapons locked away except for the pistol, which was kept in the bedroom.
A 19-year-old, whose name was not given, was quoted by Bild as saying his parents were friends with Kretschmer's and that they had asked him to play with him "because he had no friends."
He said Kretschmer had at least 30 air guns that shot plastic pellets in his room, and that his father had built a shooting range in his basement for him to practice with them, Bild reported.
"When we went outside he shot at us with the air pistols and wouldn't stop," the boy was quoted as saying. "It really hurt - so nobody wanted to play the game any more."








_Wire Service_


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## ddp335 (Feb 6, 2009)

*Re: After attacks, Europe hurries to tighten gun laws*



kwflatbed said:


> By MATTI HUUHTANEN, Associated Press Writer Matti Huuhtanen, Associated Press Writer - 2 hrs 4 mins ago
> 
> requiring that anyone ordered by a court to get mental health treatment be added to a database of people barred from buying guns.
> 
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090311/ap_on_re_eu/eu_europe_gun_laws_1


Common sense?


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## HousingCop (May 14, 2004)

*Re: After attacks, Europe hurries to tighten gun laws*


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## rg1283 (Sep 14, 2005)

*Re: After attacks, Europe hurries to tighten gun laws*

_handgun ownership from 15 to 20

_This makes sense

_--------
Swiss citizens are demanding a referendum aimed at confining army weapons to military compounds and banning private purchases of pump-action rifles and automatic weapons - following a spate of suicides and homicides._

Has anyone checked John Rosenthal's passport lately??
------
_But three years later, the state expanded gun rights instead, by requiring sheriffs to issue gun permits to people who pass a criminal background check, prohibiting local governments from making gun laws more restrictive than the state's, and abolishing local registries of gun owners._

This is bad because????

When was the last time you saw a criminal with a legal gun?? I am not saying criminals aren't using guns, but a lot of times they get easier weapons like knives and bats.

Here is my take on it:

-Remove 7 day waiting period

-Require Q5 (a File that MA PDs maintain, if one threatens to commit suicide or has attempted/Civil Commitment Check/DMH Check

-Common sense criminal background restrictions (example violent crimes, felonies) none of this breaking into chicken coop shit when the guy was 15 and is now 75 and has not even a traffic ticket on his record.

-For concealed carry everyone that meets above gets the permit.

-Police Chiefs will no longer have a say, the State will be required to issue under law if the above is meant.

---------------------------------
First step for Massachusett's citizens to get this..........

MOVE to NH or VT!, CT is half bad either.


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*Copycat threats emerge in German shooting*

By Vanessa Gera 
Associated Press

WINNENDEN, Germany - German police worked with U.S. authorities Friday to determine if they had fallen victim to an Internet hoax as they investigate a school shooting in southern Germany that killed 15 people.
Tim Kretschmer, 17, gunned down students at his former high school in Winnenden Wednesday before fleeing on foot and by car, killing three more people, and eventually turning a 9-millimeter Beretta pistol on himself.
Investigators said Thursday that Kretschmer had posted his intentions in an Internet chat room only hours beforehand, but they now say they have serious doubts about the authenticity of the posting.
Police spokeswoman Brigitte Wahl said Friday that investigators were working with officials in the United States, where the servers that host the German-language Web site are located, but did not expect to clear up the mystery quickly.
"It could take a while," she said.
Police said they were alerted to the purported Internet threat after the attack, and released a transcript of the chat at a news conference. But later in the day, after the site itself claimed the posting was fraudulent, they searched Kretschmer's computer and found no trace of it in the computer's history, police spokesman Klaus Hinderer said.
Meanwhile, the attack appeared to have triggered copycat threats.
In a town near Duesseldorf, northwest of Winnenden, police said they arrested a 17-year-old student Friday who allegedly told his fellow students he was planning an attack on his high school.
During a search of his home in the town of Ennepetal, police said they found instructions for how to make explosives and a "chemical substance" that could have been used in the process. No further details were immediately available.
In the town of Ilsfeld, northeast of Winnenden near Heilbronn, police sealed off a high school early Friday after learning of a threat posted in an Internet chat room, said police spokesman Roberto Monaci. Authorities found nothing immediately in their search of the school.
And in the northern state of Lower Saxony, police arrested a 21-year-old man near the town of Soltau who threatened in an Internet chat room to kill 16 people at a school. Police spokesman Peter Hoppe said the man turned out to possess no weapons and claimed to have just been having fun. They plan to charge him with disturbing the public peace.
In Winnenden, residents mourned and expressed shock that a bloody rampage could take place in their small and peaceful town.
Teenagers and their parents lit candles and placed flowers at a makeshift memorial on the edge of the school grounds, while Guenther Oettinger, the governor of the surrounding state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, was expected at city hall to sign a condolence book.
Police were also trying to understand more about the motives of Kretschmer, a quiet and withdrawn teen who wore glasses. Authorities and schoolmates described him as an unobtrusive teenager who had friends and never stirred up trouble in school.
Prosecutors say he suffered depression and had been in brief treatment last year but broke it off against doctors' recommendations. Kretschmer's father is a well-off businessman who legally owned 15 weapons and belonged to a gun club where his son regularly turned up for target practice.
He used one of his father's guns to kill nine students and three teachers in the school. He fled when police stormed the school, and killed three more people before eventually turning the gun on himself after a shootout with police.
Prosecutors are investigating whether charges can be filed against Kretschmer's father, who was required by German law to keep his weapons properly secured.








_Wire service_


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