071120 - Auvinen, the copycat killer of Jokela massacre
During last few weeks we've seen what can happen when everything goes terribly wrong in a young man's life. Jokela school massacre has left everyone astounded, how can something like this happen in a quiet neighborhood in Finland. Media has had a field day, no news is good news doesn't apply to scandal-hungry reporters, some of which have done their best, or worst, to point fingers in all directions. The more controversial the better.
The aftermath has given all too familiar organizations a chance to exploit the situation and voice their version of the "truth", knowing few facts, rejecting some and substituting their own.
All in all, Jokela incident was a copycat massacre. A certifiably mentally ill mind found a cheap way to notoriety and immortality from the huge media coverage of previous incidents, namely Virginia Tech and Columbine massacres. A surefire, excuse the pun, way to become famous internationally. In a world full of dime-a-dozen celebrities, reality TV and idolizing fame, an insane killing spree has become a winner. Especially if the perpetrator uses a gun of any kind; bombs may - and do - kill more people, much more easily, but blowing up a public building leaves the killer without the free and extensive publicity from the loudest of organizations: the international anti-gun lobby.
There's no business like show business, especially when politics are involved. Carefully worded misinformation is the key to focusing the attention to irrelevant issues and this is where anti-gun lobby truly excels. Their favourite subject is too easy availability of firearms, closely followed by statistics - real or doctored - with interpretations that only can, eloquently, be called creative. International media often swallows the bait; hook, line and sinker.
A considerable amount of publicity has been gathered by the fact that Pekka-Eric Auvinen, the perpetrator of Jokela massacre, had obtained a license for his gun by joining a shooting club and simply filling in an application, without other mandatory background checks than a clean criminal record. In reality, the club wasn't really a club, but a commercial shooting range where membership can be bought and the member card isn't anything else than a proof that the person has access to a proper shooting range. This, in itself, is anything but a guarantee that a purchase license will be issued to the holder of a such card. Auvinen had absolutely no kind of target shooting history and his interests were in publicity, notoriety and violence, not in shooting sports. No-one in their right mind would call someone who just has purchased a gun a sports shooter, just like buying a guitar doesn't make anyone a musician.
The finnish gun act states, that a license can be only issued to an applicant, whose personal qualities and state of health are suitable for gun ownership. This is very logical and it should have prevented Auvinen from obtaining the license. However, another law, the privacy protection act, makes it virtually impossible for the police to check the applicant's medical history, including mental health issues. Even a doctor who makes an alarming diagnose of a patient's aggression can't report the problems to the police. Privacy is well protected, at the expense of public safety, and this case was a prime example of how contradicting laws can and will cause unpredictable problems.
There are more than 650.000 licensed gun owners in Finland. There's a firearm in every other household and 60% of these are hunting rifles and shotguns. Handguns are very popular too, hunters and trappers use them to euthanize wounded and trapped game and shooting sports are a popular pastime. Firearms, particularly handguns, have caused very few problems in Finland. Licensed, legal handguns have been involved in only 2% of all homicide, according to latest report (the National Research Institute of Legal Policy), which covers years 2002-2006. More murders are committed with bare hands than with legal handguns, and not just by a small margin; by a whopping 1150%.
What caused the tragedy? It's safe to say that the handgun involved wasn't the cause, only a means to commit the crime, and relatively ineffective at that. It served its purpose as an already controversial object that would fuel the following debate. And it has, ad nauseum.
There are no security guards or metal detectors at schools in Finland. Social control works far better than harsh security measures, but in this case it failed miserably. Every person is a product of his/her environment and we really need to find out what made Pekka-Eric Auvinen a murderer. Was it all about misinterpreting his mother's somewhat radical green, environmentalist opinions? Was it just a narcist's macabre act to became famous, following the footsteps of those who had already succeeded in it? Was it a counteractive way to promote his communist-facist idealism by becoming a perverted martyr, a warning example that would promote further restrictions and laws as a quick fix to a perceived problem, one that Auvinen created himself - on purpose? We'll never find out the whole truth and it's highly hypocritical to blame one of the most far-fetched scapegoats, law abiding hunters and target shooters for all this. Homemade bombs have killed far more people than guns in school shootings, yet no-one has suggested that we should restrict the legitimate use of high nitrate fertilizers or flammable liquids, just because a handful of people use them as high explosives.
The exaggerated statistics of anti-gun lobby are a hoax. To put things in perspective, 60% of IANSA's figure of "500+" deaths in school massacres consisted of attacks by professional terrorists and terrorist organizations, armed with stolen and black market military weapons, which have absolutely nothing to do with sporting firearms. When these unrelated acts of national and international terrorism are removed from the equation, the combined bodycount of IANSA's recently published list of "school shootings" since 1996 is only 15% higher than what Timothy McVeigh achieved with a single bomb. A sobering fact to those who still think that anti-gun lobby would provide unbiased facts about virtually anything.
As far as legal ownership of firearms is concerned, there's no such thing as a gun problem. Or fertilizer and diesel fuel problem, for that matter. There are social problems, which are the root cause for nearly all acts of violence. Guns and fertilizer bags don't cause violence any more than pencils cause misspelled words.
Henri R Helanto
Vice President
NRA Kansallinen Kivääriyhdistys ry
Finland |
