This morning a 22 year old used a firearm to attack his former school in Graz, the second largest city in Austria. He killed 8 people and then himself, also wounding two dozen others with some still in critical condition.
This one hits rather close to home. The school in question is a BORG (“Bundesoberstufenrealgymnasium”, basically a general high school under federal administration) attended by students aged 14 to 18. While I myself don’t have children, the children of my sister are the right age, and I also have a coworker whose son graduated from this kind of school just a couple of weeks ago, though of course here in Klagenfurt rather than an hour and a half away in Graz. I also have a step-sister who lives in Graz, whose daughter graduated from a neighboring school just a week ago.
I am not sure what to say. It’s just horrifying. I am just glad that this sort of stuff happens here only every 5 years or so, rather than every 5 weeks in some other places.