School killing shocked Austria, France searched for answers

Within two hours in France and Austria, two shocking attacks left parents and government in trouble and were confused about how to protect school students from random, deadly violence.

Around 08:15 Tuesday, a 14-year-old boy from an ordinary family from eastern France pulled out a kitchen knife while having a school bag check and fatally stabbed the school assistant.

Not long after, in southeast Austria, a 21-year-old man dropped out of school three years ago and walked into Dreierschützengasse High School in Glaz at 09:43 and shot nine students and a teacher of Glock 19 Handgun and Sawn-off Shotgun.

In both countries, there is a need for solutions and a more focused on young people who resort to this violence.

Austria has never seen a school attack of this scale, but the French stabbing was carried out in a government program to address the growth of knife crime.

The police have described the Glaz shooter who named Austrian media Arthur A as a very introvert who retreated to the virtual world.

His “great passion” is an online first-person shooter, who socially connects with other gamers via the internet, according to Michael Lohnegger, head of the Styria Crime Investigation.

Arthur A is a former student of the Dreierschützengasse School and failed to complete his studies.

Upon arriving at school, he put on his headphones and shot glasses and then went on a deadly seven-minute shooting frenzy. He then committed suicide in the school bathroom.

He legally owned two guns, passed a psychological test to have a license, and had several weapons training at the Graz Shooting Club earlier this year.

This sparked an exciting debate in Austria on whether gun laws need to be tightened and the level of care provided by struggling young people.

The results show that the shooter was denied mandatory military service in the country in July 2021.

Defense Ministry spokesman Michael Bauer told the BBC that after being tested, Arthur A was found to be psychologically unsuitable for service. But he said Austria’s legal system prevented the military from passing such tests.

There are now calls for changes to the law.

Alex, the mother of a surviving 17-year-old boy, told the BBC that more should be done to prevent people like Arthur A from dropping out of school in the first place.

“We know … when people shoot each other like this, it’s mainly when they feel lonely, dropping out of school and out of the house. We don’t know how to get them back into society, into groups, into peer groups, into groups, into groups.”

“As adults, we are responsible for this and we have to accept it now.”

After the attack, President Alexander Van der Bellen raised the possibility of tightening Austrian gun laws during his visit to Graz: “If we conclude that the Austrian gun laws need to be changed to ensure greater safety, then we will do so.”

Austria is one of the heaviest civilian populations in Europe, with an estimated 30 guns per 100 people.

Despite previous school shootings, their casualties have been much smaller.

Glaz Mayor Elke Kahr believes that there is no private person who can own weapons at all. “Weapon licenses are issued too quickly,” she told Austria’s ORF TV. “Only police can carry weapons, not private.”

An armed gendarmes appeared at the entrance of the Françoise Dolto Middle School, 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Paris. A teenager pulled out a 20-centimeter kitchen knife and repeatedly stabbed Mélanie G, 31, who was 31 and had a four-year-old son.

The boy accused of committing the murder told police he was condemned by another school assistant Friday for kissing his girlfriend.

As a result, he had resentment towards the average school assistant and was obviously determined to kill one. The school holidays were closed on Monday, and Tuesday was his first day.

The state attorney’s preliminary assessment was that the boy, named Quentin, came from a normal family and had no criminal or mental health records.

However, children also seem disconnected and emotional. He is good at violent video games, showing “a fascination with death” and “a lack of reference points related to the value of human life.”

So far, the tenacious attack does not fit in the template for anti-social youth crimes or gang violence that France has seen in France.

There is no suggestion for social media indoctrination, either.

According to the prosecutor, the boy hardly did that. He has committed violence against students twice, and was suspended for one day each time.

Without family breakdown or deprivation, school officials called him “social, a good student who was integrated into the life of the institution.”

This year, he was even named the “ambassador” for bullying.

Despite all the calls for greater security in schools, this crime is actually under the nose of an armed military police. As Home Minister Bruno Retailleau said, no matter how many police officers you deploy, there will be some crime.

For more information about boys’ mentality, we must wait for reports from all psychologists, and there are likely signs of missing out, or there are family details we don’t know yet.

On the surface, he may be more of a middle-class loner, and his obvious normality suggests a crime triggered by an inner psychological process rather than a peer-driven association or simulation.

This is what hits French chords. If an average boy can find out like this from watching too many violent videos, who will be the next step?

It is worth noting that the French government has just approved the use of the UK’s Netflix series of adolescence as a helping school.

Of course there are differences.

The boy was arrested for killing a teenage girl in a TV series, which made the evil “toxic male” impact on social media – but there is the same problem that teenagers are vulnerable to being quarantined online.

There are calls for action throughout the political spectrum, but there is little consensus on the priorities that should be, and there is no hope that anything will be different.

Prior to the killing, President Emmanuel Macron said they were too obsessed with crime and were not interested enough in other issues such as the environment.

The tenacious attack left him on his feet, and he repeatedly promised to ban social media under the age of 15.

But there are two difficulties. One of them is the practicality of the measure, which the EU is theoretically dealing with, but succumbing to endless delays.

Another is that, according to prosecutors, the boy was not particularly interested in social media. His business is a violent video game.

Prime Minister François Bayrou said it would ban the sale of knife sales to under 15 years old. But the boy took him from home.

Bayrou said airport-style metal detectors should be tested at schools, but most heads are opposed.

Populist rights want harder sentences for teenagers carrying knifes and exclude subversion students from regular courses.

But that heavy boy wasn’t a problem.

The only measure that everyone says is more school doctors, nurses and psychologists in order to spot early signs of students being off track.

Of course, this will take a lot of money, which is not much money in France.