Posted on 11/22/2006 10:39:14 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
Emsdetten, Germany (dpa) - Pathologists in Germany said Tuesday a teenaged youth who shot and wounded five people at his old school the previous day killed himself with a gunshot in the mouth.
Sebastian Bosse, 18, an enthusiast for both live-action and virtual shooting games, was armed with reproductions of old-fashioned muzzle-loaders which can be freely bought on the internet, police said.
The attack revived debate in Germany on banning first-person shooter video games. Edmund Stoiber, premier of the state of Bavaria, said he would introduce legislation against them in federal parliament, adding, "Killer games should be prohibited in Germany."
However the German Interactive Software Association dismissed the calls, saying this would breach constitutional free-speech rights. Olaf Wolters, a spokesman, said a ban would be ineffective, because the games could be downloaded from abroad via the internet.
The attack, presaged by home-made warfare videos on Bosse's internet site, had chilling parallels to other school shootings including that by Robert Steinhaeuser, 19, who killed 16 people and then himself at his school in Erfurt, Germany in April 2002.
Both youths were loners at school, enraged that they were ignored by fellow teenagers and had failed scholastically. Steinhaeuser had been expelled and Bosse had repeated classes three times, graduating last year among children three years his junior.
"None of us had any contact with him," said Linda Blaenkner, a former classmate at the Geschwister Scholl high school attended by Boss in Emsdetten near the Dutch border.
Bosse was a keen player of Counter-Strike, a computer game in which the player holds a virtual gun and kills opponents, but he also acted out his gunman fantasies with like-minded youths in the woods.
A second youth was visible in some of the images on a Bosse website, according to Spiegel Online Tuesday, but police said they were sure Bosse had conducted his armed raid alone.
The five people he shot were recovering Tuesday, as were 32 others who were mainly injured by fumes from smoke-bombs. Prosecutors said witnesses described Bosse firing three times at random into groups of playing children. It was lucky no one had been killed. He then holed up a second-storey school corridor. Police who retook the school said they did not fire a shot and found him dead.
Two of the three old-style firearms he carried Monday were on free sale in Germany to persons 18 and over.
The third, a small-bore rifle, would have required a gun licence. Bosse only had a junior gun licence that allowed him to carry a compressed-gas weapon for self-defence, the police commander on the case, Hans Volkmann, said.
The attack also brought calls Tuesday for German schools to move faster to provide counselling for disgruntled students.
Josef Kraus, president of one of Germany's teachers' unions, the Lehrerverband, charged that German politicians, schools, the media and entertainment industry were too busy blaming one another to take any effective action to re-integrate loner youths like Bosse.
"We have a fundamental culture here of looking away if there is a problem," he told N-TV.
In remarks to the newspaper Bild, he said, "Brutal computer games and videos con youths into the idea that the strong win. They don't show the losers any way out. Drugs, consumerism and fun are the sole values that today's pop and TV stars propagate."
Exactly. I would never refer to myself as a "German American." Just American. Immigrant. Legal. With strong feelings about border control.
They can start with those damn "King" video games they are selling at Burger King
"They look to the past and see their future............."
I believe it is even worse, given "Old Europe's" (thanx Rummy for that one) post-modern atheism and resulting very low birth rates. Have you heard of Mark Steyn? He argues persuavively, IMO, that Europe is headed toward an Islamic dominated society because of demographic trends. I attach an op-ed he wrote in the WSJ in January '06.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007760
Yes, I'm aware of Mr. Steyn. And he is probably right. The islamic invasion and their subsequent birth rate explosion will doom most of Europe to dhimmitude in a few decades at most. They have no one to blame but their own socialist magnet mindset of the post WWII era. The islamist jihadis will do what the Ottomans and Moors could not achieve, successfully dominating Europe thru infiltration and subversion, via Europe's own multiculturalist attitudes. I hope your friends and relatives in Germany have their prayer rugs and bhurkas ready, before the rush to buy makes them too expensive..........
With the decrease in population, Germany will have a hard time paying thos promised social services in about ten years from now.
Russia is facing an even greater problem.
"I hope your friends and relatives in Germany have their prayer rugs and bhurkas ready, before the rush to buy makes them too expensive.........."
They don't. They think I am a whacko for voting for Bush and believing that the war on terror is real. They think I am a fool for working 50+ hours a week, while they (they mostly have jobs) work 35 hours a week and take every August off.
I think France goes down first. They have experience in these matters! More than half of that country sold out, pronto, to the Vichy faction in WWII. I think they have even less will to resist totalitarianism today than then. They are tolerating a state within a state in certain areas outside of Paris.
The Netherlands, England, and to a far lesser extent, Germany, are putting up some resistance, I think. Merkel is a small step forward, IMO.
The islamists have already targeted Denmark as their first conquest. I've been there, and Germany, too. The Danes may be the first to fire in the Battle for Europe..........
Agreed. If you have not read Mark Steyn's thoughts on this, I would recommend looking them up. I put a link to a WSJ op-ed piece he wrote in an earlier post.
Freuliches Thanksgiving!
"The Danes may be the first to fire in the Battle for Europe.........."
Recent news seems to suggest that could be the case. I hope US has sufficient military assets to assist, if that happens.
There are, unfortunately, some new kids on the block -- Dingel, Rangel, Reid and Pelosi -- that could jeopardize this.
Recent news? Is there something rotten in Denark?...........
sometimes I get the feeling that Goebbes is still alive. At least his Lehringe have now become Gesellen and they do a good job replacing him. Tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.
I do firmly believe that Europe will have another civil War. Especially if the constipatio, sorry, constitution gets approved. It maintains total control by unelected politicians over everyones lives. From the top down instead of from the bottom up.
Oh well, it's their country.
While Americans are willing to die for their country, Germans are willing to whine for theirs.
Where are you from?
my reply # 34 was meant for you, sorry.
You know I have sat for hours watching the hostages in counterstrike and never once have they decided to attempt to escape. I still watch them though. Just in case.
Banning of wearing of burquas was proposed by some brave elected offical there (don't recall name or title right now) a few days ago. This after the cartoon episode earlier this year... I think they may be the first to be fed up with the attempted distruction of their culture.
No prob. The thing is, my cousins accuse ME of believing a "Big Lie", with Bush/Rummy/Cheney as the Nazi propaganda ministers this time. They think that the Islamist terrorism exists, but its just a crime problem. LOL.
They will feel differently as soon as the first head comes off.
It is inevitable.Germany is the WEAK link in the chain. the Mooselimbs will eventually figure it out. It takes a while.
How long have you been here?
What part of the country are you in?
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