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.
American hegemony is probably the worst example of enshitification in history. Our cultural exports used to be Hollywood movies and McDonalds. Now it's our alienation, right wing ideology, and ultra-violence that crosses boarders and ignores local social policy.
🤣 I'm typically on the side of the EU on stuff like this, but damn. The US is catching strays. How in the hell is it our(US) fault that EU kids are reflecting their surroundings? Right-wing fascism and violence have been trending upward for a while, the US is far from the only country dealing with it.
Oh those poor EU countries so helpless to defend themselves from media and ideas. Children are products of their environment. They weren't raised in the US. If it's American media that's "poisoned" the youth, maybe those kid's parents should pay more attention to their media diets?
It's ridiculous to try to pin this on the US. Is it US citizens going to Europe to shoot up schools? Perhaps the US and Europe share some common problems.
And the hegemony comment has a lot of upvotes, too.
If it were, why are there so few school shootings in the EU as compared to the US? I guarantee you europeans are no less hateful, there are just better gun controls
Yet school shootings are increasing while guns are not, so there's clearly another factor at play here. To address your question, however, Europeans have fewer targets to hate compared to America, are less individualistic, have better safety nets and mental healthcare, are behind on the progression towards fascism, etc etc. Of course some/most US states desperately need better gun control, but that's ultimately a side-issue compared to the fact that US society is also deeply broken in many ways most/all European societies just aren't. Kids regularly trying to shoot up their classrooms is not normal; it's a symptom of a much deeper problem within society that needs to be identified and addressed. Focusing on gun control simply gives the government and its rich patrons something to point to so they don't need to unfuck society.
European countries already have absurdly tight gun control; more of that would simply be barking up the wrong tree. Also, as France found out recently, when there are no guns other lethal weapons—like knives—are used instead, and don't even get me started on pipe bombs.
Terrorist attack last week in Boulder. The guy tried to buy a gun and was denied. Dude prepped molotov cocktails, threw two of them, realized hurting random civilians is wrong and started putting out the fires. None dead.