There is something material to this discussion : The ' boy ' had indicated his mind, in his own words, day before committing the mayhem. Let's hear.
"I have weapons here and tomorrow morning I will go to my old school and really whip up a storm," Tim Kretschmer, 17, said in a chat room, according to the interior minister of the state where Wednesday's massacre took place. "I have had enough of this crummy life... Always the same. People are laughing at me, no-one recognises my potential... You will hear about me tomorrow. Make note of the name of the place: Winnenden," the posting said. "He should have just killed himself," pensioner Hildegard Kronbach said as she stood on the church steps. His father is a successful businessman who employs 150 people at a packaging firm, according to police, but his son found it difficult to fit in at school and had few friends. "He was simply not accepted by anyone and just sat all day in front of his computer," Mario, a schoolmate, told German television station N24. Reports also said he was keen on computer shooting games -- especially the violent "Counter-Strike" -- and had become a real-life crack shot at the shooting range where his father was a member. After leaving school last year, Kretschmer had enrolled on a course to train as a salesman. He regularly worked out at the gym, belonged to a sports club and was a keen table tennis player. His father owned more than a dozen guns, all locked away except the nine millimetre Beretta pistol that caused the carnage. Police also found 4,600 rounds of ammunition at the house. Rech said Kretschmer had apparently cracked an eight-digit code to a locked cabinet containing guns and ammunition. The killer had "destroyed the soul of an entire school and ripped into the heart of a town," Rech added. The tragedy brought back haunting memories of a similar bloodbath in Erfurt in eastern Germany in 2002 that left 17 dead, including the gunman, and rekindled a gun-control debate. Gun laws were tightened after Erfurt and there have already been calls for even stricter laws and also a ban on violent computer games. The above were excerpts from The Guardian. The fact that the boy was filled with the sense of " unrecognised potential," despite having all ( compared to a teen in an average household in India ) materially, is what is most germane to the case. On Mar 13, 3:42 am, frantheman <[email protected]> wrote: > The past few days have seen two frightening series of rampage > killings, in Alabama and in Southern > Germany:http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,612863,00.html > Living in Germany, and having a 17-year-old daughter going to school > here, I've been hearing and reading quite a bit about our local horror > in the past few days. It seems to have been a typical case of a boy/ > young man with major mental/self-image problems irrevocably losing it. > > The talking heads are waffling about the availability of weapons (Tim > K. used a Beretta his father kept in his bedroom), graphic computer > games (Counterstrike) and all the other usual stuff. Despite my oft- > posted abhorrence for privately-held guns, I don't really think that > further gun control is the answer (not to this particular problem - > rampage killings take place in societies with tight and with lax gun- > control - the killers seem to be able to get the guns anyway). I also > don't believe that 99.99% of kids are significantly brutalised by > graphic games - otherwise no street in the world would be safe to > walk, given the fact that almost all 18-year old males in the > developed world have,or have had significant exposure to such games. > > I don't know if there is any real answer to such events. Growing up > has always has its problems and it certainly isn't easy for kids > today, in our high-octane, high-pressure, consuming/consumptive > performance- and success-driven society. One interesting comment I've > heard claimed that girls tend to internalise aggression (with results > such as the repeated cutting of arms) while guys are more likely to > channel that argression outwards. That said, it was the amok killings > of Brenda Ann Spencer in 1979, which inspired Bob Geldof to write, "I > Don't Like Mondays", which maybe gives the best explanation for why > such things happening - the best because it just expresses rather than > explains the unexplainable: > "The silicon chip inside her head > gets switched to overload ... " > > Francis --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
