FINNISH teenage gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who killed eight people and himself in a school shooting posted YouTube videos showing him posing with a gun just 30 minutes before the attack, police said yesterday.
Investigation head Tero Haapala said Auvinen was online about half an hour before the first shots were reported at a high school in southern Finland on 7 November.
"He was working on his various manifestos and the publicly presented videos that contained material on handling guns among other things," Haapala said.
One of the video clips, titled "Jokela High School Massacre," showed a picture of the school and two photos of Auvinen holding a handgun.
Another showed Auvinen loading a clip into a handgun and firing several shots at an apple placed on the ground in a wooded area. He smiled and waved to the camera at the end of the clip.
"He did some editing on these [YouTube] files. They were put on the internet about 30 minutes before the shooting started," Haapala said.
Auvinen killed six students, a nurse and the principal on Wednesday in Tuusula, about 30 miles north of Helsinki. He then shot himself.
Police are going through files seized from Auvinen's computer and have requested information from the internet provider to find out more about his web contacts.
Among them was a US teenager, Dillon Cossey, who acknowledged plotting a school attack near Philadelphia.
The two teenagers communicated online about the 1999 Columbine school massacre in Colorado.
Originally posted by LovebugDepends on how you look at it. In my opinion yes.
FINNISH teenage gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who killed eight people and himself in a school shooting posted YouTube videos showing him posing with a gun just 30 minutes before the attack, police said yesterday.
Investigation head Tero Haapala said Auvinen was online about half an hour before the first shots were reported at a high school in southern Finla ...[text shortened]... e two teenagers communicated online about the 1999 Columbine school massacre in Colorado.
Originally posted by LovebugMaybe mental unstable, so can a mentally unstable person be evil ?
FINNISH teenage gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who killed eight people and himself in a school shooting posted YouTube videos showing him posing with a gun just 30 minutes before the attack, police said yesterday.
Investigation head Tero Haapala said Auvinen was online about half an hour before the first shots were reported at a high school in southern Finla ...[text shortened]... e two teenagers communicated online about the 1999 Columbine school massacre in Colorado.
Originally posted by LovebugTo take an innocent life this way is very evil. This psychopath probably had no excellence in any area of his life and so this was his way of "making a mark."
FINNISH teenage gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who killed eight people and himself in a school shooting posted YouTube videos showing him posing with a gun just 30 minutes before the attack, police said yesterday.
Investigation head Tero Haapala said Auvinen was online about half an hour before the first shots were reported at a high school in southern Finla ...[text shortened]... e two teenagers communicated online about the 1999 Columbine school massacre in Colorado.
Whether it's "evil" or not isn't very important. The problem with labelling something as "evil" is that it gives you an easy way of not thinking about all sorts of difficult questions regarding why they did it.
This is a general point - I'm making no particular comment about this event, as I don't know enough about it. But I've seldom seen a situation where "evil" was a helpful concept.
Originally posted by mtthwI'm with you there, labelling something as evil lets us put it out of our minds, it makes it sound like something that was bound to happen. Rather we should look at it as what it is, a very terrible crime, and all crimes have some cause or trigger behind them. Be it a mentally imbalanced point of view or whatever, but a cause there was. Finding that cause and preventing things like this from happening again is much more helpful than labelling it as evil and moving on in the comfort of our knowedge that we could never be that evil... could we?
Whether it's "evil" or not isn't very important. The problem with labelling something as "evil" is that it gives you an easy way of not thinking about all sorts of difficult questions regarding why they did it.
This is a general point - I'm making no particular comment about this event, as I don't know enough about it. But I've seldom seen a situation where "evil" was a helpful concept.
I can hardly believe my eyes! All my friends at rhp are tippy-toeing around the word “evil” as if it were a land mine. 😕 I don’t have such aversions to words, if someone shot me…no, if someone shot AT me I definitely label that person as thrice evil. ðŸ˜
”In Western philosophy, evil is usually limited to the idea of doing harm or damage to an object or creature. Plato argued that that which we call evil is merely ignorance and that good is that which everyone desires.”
Originally posted by agryson'Evil' characterizes events, just as color characterizes objects. I can say, "this event was evil" or "that wall is blue" without speculating on the cause.
I'm with you there, labelling something as evil lets us put it out of our minds, it makes it sound like something that was bound to happen. Rather we should look at it as what it is, a very terrible crime, and all crimes have some cause or trigger behind them. Be it a mentally imbalanced point of view or whatever, but a cause there was. Finding that cause an ...[text shortened]... evil and moving on in the comfort of our knowedge that we could never be that evil... could we?
That said, people commit evil acts mostly when they think or focus on the short-term rather than the long-term. All sorts of crimes like theft or murder are justified in criminal's minds because they provide a short-term benefit (material or emotional) -- and they miscalculate or ignore the likelihood of long-term harm resulting to themselves. Or, as in this case, they give up the long-term altogether. People go for a short term solution when they have been hugely deprived, or see no long-term hope, or are mentally ill.
But the acts are still evil.
From what I read in the OP yes. He took a gun to school and shot educators and a nurse. There would have to be a some extremely serious history to justify that (rape, repeated bodily harm by the principal/nurse to others etc.). I don't care if he was mentally unstable, the action of taking someone else's life without just cause is evil.