The nation of Finland is rocked today by the tragedy of a school shooting.  An 18-year-old high school student walked into his school today and went on a shooting spree, killing eight people, before shooting himself in the head.  He initially survived his self-inflicted wounds, but later died.

Apparently, this boy had apparently posted up a chilling video on YouTube, even going so far as to title it: “Jokela High School Massacre – 11/7/2007″ and it basically detailed his plans and foreshadowed this grisly event.  The video is no longer available on YouTube, and clicking on that link will take you to a CNN article where some still images from the video have been captured.

This is one of every parent’s nightmare, and it is the type of nightmare that is apparently that some have seen fit to blame on American influences. 

“Although such crimes are becoming more common in Europe, the willingness to commit them is still often seen as a Satanic influence seeping over from the United States….”

-states a New York Times article from 2002.

Mike Nizza, a blogger for the New York Times has said this of a shooting that took place in 1997:

In the aftermath, blame fell to the United States and its influence abroad…

.. and he goes on to conclude, regarding the shooting at Jokela High School:

…Whether that will be the conclusion in today’s case remains to be seen, although the line from Jokela High to Virginia Tech and Columbine seems an easy one to draw.

If you scroll down to the comments of this particular post by Nizza, there is a clear diversity in the sides readers have taken.

I’d like to hear what you think of this whole incident, and if you think this incident and others before it can be attributed, even partially to American influences.  Leave a comment, and if you have posted about this incident, please leave the permalink to that post, and I will add your link below.

• Your link here!

Read more about it:::::

• http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/….
• http://www.reuters.com/article/….
• http://www.afp.com/….
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/…
• http://www.cnn.com/2007/…

Technorati Tags: school shooting, violence, Finland, crime, America

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