A teenager described as a model student shot a teacher and a police officer dead and took more than 20 of his schoolmates hostage in a Moscow classroom on Monday, days before Russia hosts the Winter Olympics under tight security.
The suspect was disarmed and detained about an hour after the shootings after talking to his father, the owner of the two rifles with which he forced his way into the school in northern Moscow at midday.
Irina Yarovaya, a pro-Kremlin lawmaker who heads the security committee in the State Duma, put some blame on "propaganda of aggression", such as violent computer games, but also said access to guns should be tightened.
She said the punishment for legal gun owners whose negligence enabled others to get their hands on weapons was "infinitesimal". The maximum sentence for the offence is six months.
Duma international affairs committee head Alexei Pushkov suggested Russia had embraced U.S. culture with deadly effect.
"Moscow school shooting: American movies and domestic serials, full of violence, are producing results - now it is like the USA here," he tweeted. "Is this what we wanted?"
Russia's homicide rate is about twice ours, despite already strict gun control. But as always, control freaks push for more control, instead of doing something worth doing.
ReplyDeleteWhy are there so few school shootings?
DeleteMikeb, why do you ask silly questions? The worst school shooting ever was in Russia--Beslan, with 186 children and 148 adults killed. But you're worried about the location of killings, while I've pointed out to you that more people die in Russia than in the United States. Method and location are less important than the total number.
DeleteIs that all you care about? Russia’s homicide rate is 15/100K- more than three times ours with only 10% of our guns per people ratio. Because of their super strict laws they don’t own many guns, so yes, a kid is going to have a much harder time finding one (the Russian mafia doesn’t seem to have a hard time though). But are you wanting to confiscate and destroy 90% of our guns to get down to their level? Surely not.
Deletehttp://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/09/19/224043848/the-u-s-has-more-guns-but-russia-has-more-murders
TS, I don't think even I will get up to 90%. I'm stickin' with 50.
Delete