In Attacks in Germany, Gun Access and Torment https://bnarcissisticabuserecovery.runboard.com/t4386 Runboard| In Attacks in Germany, Gun Access and Torment en-us Thu, 28 Mar 2024 20:41:34 +0000 Thu, 28 Mar 2024 20:41:34 +0000 https://www.runboard.com/ rssfeeds_managingeditor@runboard.com (Runboard.com RSS feeds managing editor) rssfeeds_webmaster@runboard.com (Runboard.com RSS feeds webmaster) akBBS 60 In Attacks in Germany, Gun Access and Tormenthttps://bnarcissisticabuserecovery.runboard.com/p45665,from=rss#post45665https://bnarcissisticabuserecovery.runboard.com/p45665,from=rss#post45665Serial and mass killers http://malignantselflove.tripod.com/serialkillers.html School shootings http://malignantselflove.tripod.com/9.html Narcissism and Evil http://malignantselflove.tripod.com/journal65.html Is the Narcissist Legally Insane? http://malignantselflove.tripod.com/personalitydisorders49.html ================ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/world/europe/13germany.html In Attacks in Germany, Gun Access and Torment   Michael Probst/Associated Press A woman and a child mourned in front of Albertville school in Winnenden, Germany, on Thursday, a day after a teenage gunman killed himself and 15 other people. More Photos > By CARTER DOUGHERTY Published: March 12, 2009 WAIBLINGEN, Germany — A portrait of a troubled, depressed teenager with easy access to an unsecured pistol began to emerge Thursday, a day after the youth went on a rampage, killing 15 people before taking his own life. Skip to next paragraph Multimedia Slide Show School Shooting in Germany Related Teenage Gunman Kills 15 at School in Germany (March 12, 2009) The Lede: Updates on the German School Shooting (March 11, 2009) Times Topics: School Shootings   Markus Merz-Stuttgarter Zeitung/Getty Images Tim Kretschmer in 2006. More Photos » By Thursday, the police had established that the teenager, Tim Kretschmer, 17, last year broke off a round of psychological counseling for depression. Searching his bedroom, the police found violent computer games — in which, experts say, players digitally clothe and arm themselves for combat — plus brutal videos and play weapons that fire small yellow pellets, said Siegfried Mahler of the Stuttgart prosecutors’ office. And they were trying to verify the authenticity of a reported posting to a chat room in which someone warned of an attack on a school in Winnenden. The killer graduated last year from the school where the attacks took place. Rather than speak of a specific motive, investigators described Mr. Kretschmer as a classic case of a conflicted young man who wreaked havoc in real life after savoring imaginary violence in the digital world. “If we had known this in advance, we would have called him a prototype of a rampager,” said Erwin Hetger, the chief of police in Baden-Württemberg, the southeastern German state where the crimes took place. The brutality of the crimes was overwhelming. Of the 12 people Mr. Kretschmer killed at the school, 8 were girls, 3 were female teachers and one was a male student. Several were killed with carefully placed shots to the head. After killing an employee of a clinic for the mentally ill, he sprayed at least 13 rounds to kill two people at a Volkswagen dealership before turning the gun on himself. Prosecutors said they could file criminal charges against the shooter’s parents for failing to secure the pistol that he used, as required by German law. The gun was a 9-millimeter Beretta pistol that his father kept unsecured in a bedroom; other firearms owned by his father were under lock and key, the authorities said. After a shooting seven years ago at a school in Erfurt in the east of the country, German teachers and police officers were trained to respond to violent episodes. That training was on display minutes after the shooting began Wednesday. And on Thursday, offers of help came in from people who had experienced the aftermath of the Erfurt shooting. But a consensus was building that even the best plans could not prevent every emergency. “We did a lot in Germany,” said Christine Alt, director of the school in Erfurt where the shooting took place. “But it seems we will never find a recipe that is 100 percent effective.” The Internet posting that was being investigated was reported by the father of a youth identified only as Bernd, according to the police. Bernd’s information indicated that someone on the site had written: “I have weapons and will go to my old school and really burn them up. I might get out alive, but you will certainly hear about me tomorrow. Remember the name Winnenden.” The police appeared confident of the posting’s authenticity early in the day. Later, after the Web site that they named denied that there had been such a posting, the police said they were investigating that new information. Some German officials said that some people always slipped through the system undetected. “We need to recognize that there is no such thing as absolute security; that we cannot simply prevent everything,” Volker Kauder, the leader of the conservative bloc in Parliament, told German public radio. Wolfgang Schäuble, the interior minister who is in a wheelchair after being partly paralyzed by a bullet to the spine in an October 1990 assassination attempt, played down the need to tighten already tough gun laws. But with the computer having played such a role in the young man’s life, the Winnenden shootings seem likely to renew a debate in Germany over banning violent video games. “These games basically program the minds of young men a thousand times over,” said Alina Wilms, a psychologist involved in treating people affected by the Erfurt shooting, who advocates a ban. “If ever it were going to be possible,” she said, “then now.” Victor Homola contributed reporting from Berlin. nondisclosed_email@example.com (samvaknin)Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:28:41 +0000