School shooting and knife attack: what can be done?
A 21-year-old former student shot and killed nine teenagers and a teacher at a secondary school in the Austrian city of Graz on Tuesday, before taking his own life. On the same day, a 14-year-old stabbed a teaching assistant to death during a bag check at the entrance to a school in Nogent-sur-Marne in France. Europe's press discusses whether and how schools can be made safer.
Rearmament and repression not the solution
We should work towards making society friendlier and more united, demands Večer:
“With militaristic discourse and the constant conviction that we need to invest more money in defence and armaments, as well as demands for the the civilian population to be armed, as we have already seen in our country, we are clearly moving away from this goal. Just as weapons cannot and will not end wars and bring peace, weapons cannot be the solution to all the tensions that have built up in society. Nor can locked school doors or other repressive measures be a real solution to the problems.”
Tackle the roots of the problem
There are lessons to be learnt from this case, emphasises Naftemporiki:
“The 21-year-old perpetrator was legally in possession of the two weapons used in the massacre in Graz. Few other countries in Europe are as heavily armed as Austria – as shown by a study entitled 'Small Arms Survey' conducted by the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, which found that there are 30 firearms per 100 inhabitants in Austria. Such figures are usually only found in the former Yugoslavia [in Europe]. Above all, the government and society must examine the motives, not only to shed light on this heinous crime, but also to learn from it.”
Will words be followed by appropriate action?
The Kronen Zeitung calls for a tightening of Austria's gun laws:
“The expressions of solidarity, the candles, the tears of people who knew the victims or just sympathise with the bereaved, the declaration of three days of national mourning - this is all very well. But will we then go back to our daily lives as if nothing had happened? Will the gun laws remain as lax as they are now? Will it still be possible to buy a shotgun just like that, as the 21-year-old Styrian did, and use it to kill lots of people? Will it remain as easy as it was for him to legally obtain a deadly pistol? We have heard plenty of appropriate words. But will these words be followed by appropriate action?”
Not oases anymore
Kleine Zeitung sees society in bad mental shape:
“This is a farewell to the illusion that school is not a mirror of society but an upstream refuge where you can practise your curiosity about life in a familiar, safe environment. ID checks, metal detectors, locked classroom doors: all these things will have to be discussed now. Otherwise, it will no longer be possible to fulfil the promise of protecting the young and their parents. Society is sick, and the sickness no longer ends at the school gates.”
A cycle of violence
In an opinion piece in La Stampa, author Nicoletta Verna takes a closer look at bullying:
“It's a phenomenon that has been known for a long time but has never been fully addressed: the victim-perpetrator cycle. The perpetrators are often individuals who have been bullied themselves. ... A study conducted in Australia in 2023 reveals that around a quarter of victims of bullying develop aggressive behaviour. ... It's not about 'revenge', but about emulating a model. It's the belief that you can only be accepted if you inflict on others what you've had to endure. ... Bullying creates a perpetual cycle of violence.”
Voyeurism creates copycats
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung criticises both the growing number of weapons among the population and gimmicky reporting:
“Making firearms more readily available does not make our daily lives safer. In Austria, the number of authorised gun owners has increased considerably in recent years, from 200,000 to 270,000 within a decade. ... The other is the revolting voyeurism that was already being peddled online soon after the dreadful crime at the school in Graz. Pictures of the police operation, the evacuation of the school and even purported body bags circulated on all kinds of platforms. ... Media that procure them and advertise them with headlines about 'horrific scenes' should be pilloried. Not least because this could attract copycats.”
Security measures alone not enough
Libération adds:
“The presence of law enforcement officers at the time of the stabbing [in France] obviously doesn't invalidate the need to reflect on appropriate security measures to prevent such tragedies from being repeated. ... The proliferation of knives, for example, is clearly a problem that needs to be addressed. But the death of the teaching assistant at the Collège Françoise-Dolto in Nogent also shows that the issue of violence in schools is far too complex to be tackled with ready-made security solutions. The right answer lies at the intersection of education and security.”
Tackle the roots
Stricter gun laws will not prevent shootings, Večernji list argues:
“Mass killings are a form of suicide: either the perpetrators take their own lives, the police kill them, or they end up serving a lengthy prison sentence - they are acts of self-destruction. That's what distinguishes them from other crimes, which is why traditional preventive measures such as stricter gun control or harsher punishments for related offences are unlikely to deter people who go on killing sprees. These criminals are not victims. But to prevent future tragedies, the underlying pathology that fuels their despair must be addressed.”
How far must we go?
Le Quotidien says more stringent measures may be needed to counter youth violence:
“While the investigation into the unfathomable killing spree in Graz is only just beginning, the French government has decided to react quickly and ban the sale of all knives to minors. The ban will also extend to websites. The French president has also said that he is prepared to ban social media for under-15s in France if the European Union does not do so. ... Yes, it has come to this. ... Must we go even further? Ever further?”