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Old 03-22-2005, 12:20 PM   #9
dplax
Jack Burton
 

Join Date: July 19, 2003
Location: an expat living in France
Age: 40
Posts: 5,577
There is a substantial difference between a chechen terrorist group taking over a school with demands to the russian government and an american kid going to his school and shooting seven people (+2 counting the grandparents before it).

There are psycho cases, I agree, but since Columbine and even before it several times one or several kids just go into their schools and start shooting people.

Bowling for Columbine ties this together with the ease to obtain firearms in the US, but I do not want to go into a need for regulating them or not, as that topic usually gets locked after a certain time here on IW. I'll just say that the only person I know, who has a gun is my uncle, who goes hunting for deer and boar on his weekends. Other than that I have never had any of my friends or people, whom I know say that they or someone they knew had guns.

About the ease to join terrorist groups in Europe...the largest terrorist attacks carried out in Europe (Madrid train bombings) and Lockerby were done by non-european groups. Other terrorist activities in Europe might include a bomb against a church (again a topic which generates a lot of heat on IW) or ETA bombings.

The largest European terrorist groups are ETA and the different factions of the IRA (and the chechens if you consider them still Europe). ETA fight for basque independence and shall continue to fight for it. Now someone, who is young and feels angry at a situation, I'm not sure his first thought shall be to enter ETA in Spain, as he/she doesn't necessarily believe in basque independence. IRA is now mostly out of action and it even seems that they are willing to go after their members, who endanger the peace process. (after the McCartney murder they offered the family to kill the murderer, but the family did not want it).

Of course Europe has its problems and of course a european kid could theoretically acquire a dozen firearms and go rampage in a school, but for some reason it hasn't happened recently, while in the US it happened on several occasions.

There has to be a reason for that, and I don't think that football matches would explain it. Only a fraction of the population go to watch the matches and of those who go only a fraction are there not for the match, but to cause mayhem.
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