Analysis-Killings at European schools fan concern U.S. problem is spreading
By John Revill
ZURICH (Reuters) -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.
"Mass shootings, of which school shootings are a part, were overwhelmingly a U.S. problem in the past, but the balance is shifting," said Adam Lankford, a criminologist at the University of Alabama. "The number in Europe and elsewhere is increasing."
Part of the rise stems from copycat attacks in Europe often inspired by notorious U.S. rampages such as the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, according to shooters' own comments or their internet search histories, Lankford said.
"It's like an export from America. These attackers see other people do it and it has a snowball effect."
According to research by Lankford and Jason Silva, shootings carried out by people eager for notoriety were twice as numerous in the United States as in the rest of the world between 2005 and 2010. By 2017-2022, the rest of the world had caught up.
Their data also shows that Europe accounts for a bigger share of mass shootings than it used to.
It should be easier for European politicians to act against mass shootings than the United States, due to the central role of guns in American culture and identity, Lankford said.
The European Union has left gun laws and regulation of social media up to member states. Recent killings have seen a drive by several countries to apply tougher rules.
In Sweden, the government agreed to tighten the vetting process for people applying for gun licences and to clamp down on some semi-automatic weapons following the Orebro killings.
Incidents of violence and threatening behaviour in junior high and high schools rose over 150% between 2003 and 2023, according to a report by Sweden's Work Environment Authority.
In Finland, where a 12-year-old shot dead a fellow pupil and badly wounded two others in 2024, schools practice barricading doors and hiding from shooters. The government has also proposed stricter punishments for carrying guns in public.
Following a deadly December knife attack at a Zagreb primary school, Croatia's government tightened access to schools and mandated they must have security guards.
Germany has gradually imposed tighter controls on gun ownership since school massacres in 2002 and 2009, and last year introduced a ban on switchblades and on carrying knives at public events following a series of knife attacks.
RESISTANCE
Tightening gun ownership was the only way politicians could show they were taking the issue seriously, said Dirk Baier, a criminologist at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences.
"There will certainly be resistance to this, from hunters, sport shooters, or other lobby groups," he said. "However, I think the arguments for tightening the laws will outweigh the arguments against."
Gun laws have also been a hot political topic in the Czech Republic since a student shot dead 14 people at the Charles University in Prague in December 2023.
The country made it obligatory for gun sellers to report suspicious purchases and requires doctors to check whether people diagnosed with psychological problems hold gun permits.
Britain is holding a public inquiry into an attack in Southport where three young girls were stabbed to death last year. UK drama "Adolescence", a story about a schoolboy accused of murder, explores concerns about toxic online culture.
Meanwhile in France, President Emmanuel Macron this month pressed for EU regulation to ban social media for children under 15 following a fatal school stabbing.
What motivated the Austrian school gunman is still under investigation. Police said he was socially withdrawn and passionate about online shooting games.
Most such shootings are carried out by young men, and criminologist Lankford said there was a global phenomenon of perpetrators seeking notoriety that eluded them in real life, driven in part by social media.
"Even if the shooters expect to die, some are excited about leaving behind a legacy."
Austria has relatively liberal gun laws, and President Alexander Van der Bellen said after the attack the legislation deserved closer scrutiny.
Broad support in Austria for tightening gun ownership laws looked probable, although a general ban on private weapons seems unlikely, said political scientist Peter Filzmaier.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
20 minutes ago
- New York Post
The 21 cases left for the Supreme Court to decide, including transgender care
The Supreme Court is in the homestretch of a term that has lately been dominated by the Trump administration's emergency appeals of lower court orders seeking to slow President Donald Trump's efforts to remake the federal government. But the justices also have 21 cases to resolve that were argued between December and mid-May, including a push by Republican-led states to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors. One of the argued cases was an emergency appeal, the administration's bid to be allowed to enforce Trump's executive order denying birthright citizenship to U.S.-born children of parents who are in the country illegally. The court typically aims to finish its work by the end of June. 7 The Supreme Court has 21 cases to resolve that were argued between December and mid-May. REUTERS Here are some of the biggest remaining cases: Tennessee and 26 other states have enacted bans on certain treatment for transgender youth The oldest unresolved case, and arguably the term's biggest, stems from a challenge to Tennessee's law from transgender minors and their parents who argue that it is unconstitutional sex discrimination aimed at a vulnerable population. At arguments in December, the court's conservative majority seemed inclined to uphold the law, voicing skepticism of claims that it violates the 14th amendment's equal protection clause. The post-Civil War provision requires the government to treat similarly situated people the same. 7 The oldest unresolved case stems from a challenge to Tennessee's law on transgender youth AP 7 The court is weighing the case amid other federal and state efforts to regulate the lives of transgender people, such as which bathrooms they can use, and pushes to keep transgender athletes from playing in girls' sports. The court is weighing the case amid a range of other federal and state efforts to regulate the lives of transgender people, including which sports competitions they can join and which bathrooms they can use. In April, Trump's administration sued Maine for not complying with the government's push to ban transgender athletes in girls sports. Trump also has sought to block federal spending on gender-affirming care for those under 19 and a conservative majority of justices allowed him to move forward with plans to oust transgender people from the U.S. military. Trump's birthright citizenship order has been blocked by lower courts The court rarely hears arguments over emergency appeals, but it took up the administration's plea to narrow orders that have prevented the citizenship changes from taking effect anywhere in the U.S. The issue before the justices is whether to limit the authority of judges to issue nationwide injunctions, which have plagued both Republican and Democratic administrations in the past 10 years. 7 Protesters confront law enforcement outside of a federal building and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Los Angeles. Getty Images These nationwide court orders have emerged as an important check on Trump's efforts and a source of mounting frustration to the Republican president and his allies. At arguments last month, the court seemed intent on keeping a block on the citizenship restrictions while still looking for a way to scale back nationwide court orders. It was not clear what such a decision might look like, but a majority of the court expressed concerns about what would happen if the administration were allowed, even temporarily, to deny citizenship to children born to parents who are in the country illegally. Democratic-led states, immigrants and rights groups who sued over Trump's executive order argued that it would upset the settled understanding of birthright citizenship that has existed for more than 125 years. 7 A majority of the court last month expressed concerns about what would happen if the administration were allowed to deny citizenship to children born to parents who are in the country illegally. REUTERS The court seems likely to side with Maryland parents in a religious rights case over LGBTQ storybooks in public schools Parents in the Montgomery County school system, in suburban Washington, want to be able to pull their children out of lessons that use the storybooks, which the county added to the curriculum to better reflect the district's diversity. The school system at one point allowed parents to remove their children from those lessons, but then reversed course because it found the opt-out policy to be disruptive. Sex education is the only area of instruction with an opt-out provision in the county's schools. 7 LGBTQ+ veterans hold signs protesting the ban on transgender military members as they march in the World Pride parade in Washington, DC on June 7. Nathan Posner/Shutterstock The school district introduced the storybooks in 2022, with such titles as 'Prince and Knight' and 'Uncle Bobby's Wedding.' The case is one of several religious rights cases at the court this term. The justices have repeatedly endorsed claims of religious discrimination in recent years. The decision also comes amid increases in recent years in books being banned from public school and public libraries. A three-year battle over congressional districts in Louisiana is making its second trip to the Supreme Court Lower courts have struck down two Louisiana congressional maps since 2022 and the justices are weighing whether to send state lawmakers back to the map-drawing board for a third time. The case involves the interplay between race and politics in drawing political boundaries in front of a conservative-led court that has been skeptical of considerations of race in public life. At arguments in March, several of the court's conservative justices suggested they could vote to throw out the map and make it harder, if not impossible, to bring redistricting lawsuits under the Voting Rights Act. 7 The case about Louisiana congressional maps involves the interplay between race and politics in drawing political boundaries in front of a conservative-led court. AP Before the court now is a map that created a second Black majority congressional district among Louisiana's six seats in the House of Representatives. The district elected a Black Democrat in 2024. A three-judge court found that the state relied too heavily on race in drawing the district, rejecting Louisiana's arguments that politics predominated, specifically the preservation of the seats of influential members of Congress, including Speaker Mike Johnson. The Supreme Court ordered the challenged map to be used last year while the case went on. Lawmakers only drew that map after civil rights advocates won a court ruling that a map with one Black majority district likely violated the landmark voting rights law. The justices are weighing a Texas law aimed at blocking kids from seeing online pornography Texas is among more than a dozen states with age verification laws. The states argue the laws are necessary as smartphones have made access to online porn, including hardcore obscene material, almost instantaneous. The question for the court is whether the measure infringes on the constitutional rights of adults as well. The Free Speech Coalition, an adult-entertainment industry trade group, agrees that children shouldn't be seeing pornography. But it says the Texas law is written too broadly and wrongly affects adults by requiring them to submit personal identifying information online that is vulnerable to hacking or tracking. The justices appeared open to upholding the law, though they also could return it to a lower court for additional work. Some justices worried the lower court hadn't applied a strict enough legal standard in determining whether the Texas law and others like that could run afoul of the First Amendment.
Los Angeles Times
25 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Immigration raids are threatening businesses that supply America's food, farm bureaus say
VENTURA, Calif. — Large-scale immigration raids at packinghouses and fields in California are threatening businesses that supply much of the country's food, farm bureaus say. Dozens of farmworkers have been arrested recently after uniformed federal agents fanned out on farms northwest of Los Angeles in Ventura County, which is known for growing strawberries, lemons and avocados. Others are skipping work as fear in immigrant communities has deepened as President Donald Trump steps up his immigration crackdown, vowing to dramatically increase arrests and sending federal agents to detain people at Home Depot parking lots and workplaces including car washes and a garment factory. It also comes as Trump sent National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles following protests over his immigration enforcement operations. Demonstrations have since spread to other U.S. cities. Maureen McGuire, chief executive of Ventura County's farm bureau, said between 25% and 45% of farmworkers have stopped showing up for work since the large-scale raids began this month. 'When our workforce is afraid, fields go unharvested, packinghouses fall behind, and market supply chains, from local grocery stores to national retailers, are affected,' she said in a statement on Thursday. 'This impacts every American who eats.' California's farms produce more than a third of the country's vegetables and more than three-quarters of its fruits and nuts. While the state's government is dominated by Democrats, there are large Republican areas that run through farm country, and many growers throughout the state have been counting on Trump to help with key agricultural issues ranging from water to trade. Primitiva Hernandez, executive director of 805 UndocuFund, estimates at least 43 people were detained in farm fields in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties since Monday. The number is from both the Mexican consulate and the group's own estimates from talking with family members of people detained, she said. Elizabeth Strater, the United Farm Workers' director of strategic campaigns, said her group received reports of immigration arrests on farms as far north as California's Central Valley. Lucas Zucker, co-executive director of the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, said farmworker members reported that agents went to at least nine farms but were turned away by supervisors because they lacked a warrant. 'This is just a mass assault on a working-class immigrant community and essentially profiling,' Zucker said. 'They are not going after specific people who are really targeted. They're just fishing.' In response to questions about the farm arrests, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the agency will follow the president's direction and continue to seek to remove immigrants who have committed crimes. On Thursday, Trump acknowledged growers' concerns that his stepped-up immigration enforcement could leave them without workers they rely on to grow the country's food. He said something would be done to address the situation, but he did not provide specifics. 'Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,' he said on his social media account, adding: 'We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!' The California Farm Bureau said it has not received reports of a widespread disruption to its workforce, but there are concerns among community members. Bryan Little, the bureau's senior director of policy advocacy, said the group has long pressed for immigration reform to deal with long-running labor shortages. 'We recognize that some workers may feel uncertain right now, and we want to be very clear: California agriculture depends on and values its workforce,' Little said in a statement. 'If federal immigration enforcement activities continue in this direction, it will become increasingly difficult to produce food, process it and get it onto grocery store shelves.' One worker, who asked not to be named out of fear, said he was picking strawberries at a Ventura County farm early Tuesday when more than a dozen cars pulled up to the farm next door. He said they arrested at least three people and put them in vans, while women who worked on the farm burst out crying. He said the supervisors on his farm did not allow the agents inside. 'The first thing that came to my mind is, who will stay with my kids?' the worker, who is originally from Mexico and has lived in the United States for two decades, said in Spanish. 'It's something so sad and unfortunate because we are not criminals.' He said he didn't go to work Wednesday out of fear, and his bosses told him to stay home at least one more day until things settle down. But that means fruit isn't getting picked, and he isn't getting paid. 'These are lost days, days that we're missing work. But what else can we do?' he said. Taxin and Pineda write for the Associated Press.
USA Today
40 minutes ago
- USA Today
The most creative 'No Kings Day' signs and posters
The most creative 'No Kings Day' signs and posters Across the country, protestors are marching in streets in cities big and small to resist the unlawful actions of the Trump Administration. About 2,000 rallies have been planned for "No Kings" day, which counters both Donald Trump's birthday and a rare military parade planned in Washington D.C. to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the army. Millions of Americans are expecting to show up to the nationwide events — and the combination of anger at the White House and the creativity of the American people has led to some standout signs from those marching in opposition of Trump. ANTI-ICE: LAFC supporters protests immigration raids as team stands in solidarity Here's a quick look at some of the more imaginative posters at the protests. We'll keep an eye out for any more creative posters out there.
