Bombing & Shooting in Norway!

[3113]

This should have been posted yesterday! I'm so sorry--and ohmygod!

[Hours after a bomb went off in Oslo government offices] A Norwegian gunman disguised as a police officer beckoned his victims closer before shooting them one by one, claiming at least 84 lives, in a horrific killing spree on an idyllic island teeming with youths that has left this peaceful Nordic nation in mourning.

The island tragedy Friday unfolded hours after a massive explosion ripped through a high-rise building housing the prime minister's office, killing seven people in a scene some likened to the aftermath of 9/11....On the island of Utoya, panicked teens attending a Labour Party youth wing summer camp plunged into the water or played dead to avoid the assailant in the assault that may have lasted 30 minutes before a SWAT team arrived, police said.

Full story here.

Will all Author's Hangout folk anywhere in that part of the world please check in? We're not only worried about you, but any friends/family you might have had in those places.

 

[PennLady]

It's terrible. I saw this yesterday and have been following via net. I hesitate to put on the TV b/c of my kids. It'd be a little hard to explain to the 7yo.

But yes, please -- let us know how you are!

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

We had a tense few hours yesterday waiting for friends in Oslo to check in, but thankfully, they are safe. I can't believe the count is up to ninety-two already.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I am appalled. What did this cretin expect to accomplish by killing a lot of people except to kill a lot of people? Norway isn't going to react to this by inviting whatever modern day Quisling is out there to form a new government and promise to be good little xenophobes and racists. This new variety of European neo-Nazi is really frightening in their irrationality.

 

[stephen55]

I've read that this guy is some kind of right wing extremist. That alone is highly unlikely to have set him off on this kind of a killing spree. He must be mad, as in paranoid schizophrenia or in a manic psychosis.

This is truly a senseless tragedy. There can be no reason behind this man's acts. I suspect that just like the case of Jared Loughner, there will be evidence found of profound mental illness. God, I hope so, because if there isn't such evidence...then perhaps there really is a Devil.

 

[oggbashan]

Apparently he has told police that he will give his explanation for his actions in court on Monday.

 

[3113]

Apparently he has told police that he will give his explanation for his actions in court on Monday.

Typical. They always want an audience, and always want to "justify" their actions. Though Stephen's undoubtedly right; the man's likely a paranoid schizophrenic and his explanation probably won't make sense.

 

[PennLady]

Typical. They always want an audience, and always want to "justify" their actions. Though Stephen's undoubtedly right; the man's likely a paranoid schizophrenic and his explanation probably won't make sense.

News reports I've seen have said he's a right-wing extremist, fundamentalist Christian, and does not approve (?) of Norway's multi-cultural society. However, that's all subject to change, I'm sure.

 

[3113]

News reports I've seen have said he's a right-wing extremist, fundamentalist Christian, and does not approve (?) of Norway's multi-cultural society.

Might be all true, but there are plenty such folk who don't bomb buildings or shoot down teenagers even if they are the teenagers of people they don't like. Usually such people have a little more of a screw loose...though not always. History is full of such extremists who, in all sanity, have bombed and shot and lynched innocent people in the name of some higher cause or just to make a point.

 

[PennLady]

Might be all true, but there are plenty such folk who don't bomb buildings or shoot down teenagers even if they are the teenagers of people they don't like. Usually such people have a little more of a screw loose...though not always. History is full of such extremists who, in all sanity, have bombed and shot and lynched innocent people in the name of some higher cause or just to make a point.

I think you have to have a screw loose or missing to do something like this. And the logic is puzzling, and I know we won't be talking rational logic. I can see someone who feels the gov't is wrong bombing the gov't building. But then going to a youth leadership conference? But I'm sure we'll hear the statement, and the frustrating thing about any of these awful things is that there won't be any logic behind it.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I've got money that his "explanation" will make about as much sense as the Uni-bombers. The problem with mad geniuses is that they are so ingenious, especially when it comes to hurting other people.

 

[R. Richard]

What whako boy did is terrible, but avoidable.
You can rely on your police. (They too busy pimpin for they mama.) You can rely on your gun control laws. (Whako boy gets a gun anyhow.) You can die.
I'll rely on my .475 Wildey. (Many. many people in the area where I live go armed.) Talk won't get it done, but a few bullets will convince even whako boy.

"An armed citizen is a citizen. An unarmed citizen is a slave." JMNTHO.

 

[3113]

"An armed citizen is a citizen. An unarmed citizen is a slave." JMNTHO.

It seems to me that THIS armed citizen was a murderer. Nothing more.

You know, I don't expect you to have compassion, or even consider that this thread isn't all about you, but might you at least have some common sense? We have people on this forum from Norway, have friends and family in Norway. And maybe they've just lost a friend in Oslo, blown-up and what good would a gun have done that friend? Or they had a niece/nephew who was at that summer camp. Do you think they're going to appreciate being told, "Gosh, that kids parents should have packed a gun along with his summer clothes and bathing suit."

Create your own thread if you want to preach and define yourself to victory. This thread is for news on what's happening in Norway, and for people we know and care about to check in. To let us know they're okay and, hopefully, their friend and family are okay--or give us the bad news and let us mourn with them. If you have no compassion for others, if only only see this thread as something you can use something for yourself--even if it makes you look like an asshole and makes people more sure than ever that your arguments are bullshit--at least have some have some common sense. This is not the right place or time to get on a soapbox.

 

[PennLady]

Hasn't it been shown, time and time again, that places like Canada and Europe, with far stricter gun control laws than we have, have far fewer shooting deaths on an annual basis? So I just don't see how having guns makes it any better or safer.

 

[3113]

Hasn't it been shown, time and time again, that places like Canada and Europe, with far stricter gun control laws than we have, have far fewer shooting deaths on an annual basis? So I just don't see how having guns makes it any better or safer.

As I said to Richard, I think we should get off this. If people can't resist hashing this out, then it's easy enough to do so in a new thread. People checking in here shouldn't have to read posts telling them that their fellow citizen, or maybe someone they knew, died either because of gun control or a lack of gun control. It's just not right.

 

[TE999]

It appears this maniac had help. Survivors are claiming there was more than one shooter. http://translate.google.com/transla...otf=1&sl=no&tl=en&u=http://www.vg.no/&act=url

 

[voluptuary_manque]

For a couple of years I corresponded with a young man who was a captain in the Norwegian ski troops. One tough hombre, as you can imagine. He told me that for generations it was a mark of Norwegian manhood to carry a Puukko on your belt but in recent years the Labour government had decided that the custom was no befitting a 'modern, civilized' nation. If the older kids at the camp were still following tradition they could have overwhelmed the attacker. Sure, some of them would have died but a lot more of them would have survived. I'm sorry, 3, but I tend to agree with Richard.

 

[TE999]

For a couple of years I corresponded with a young man who was a captain in the Norwegian ski troops. One tough hombre, as you can imagine. He told me that for generations it was a mark of Norwegian manhood to carry a pukka on your belt but in recent years the Labour government had decided that the custom was no befitting a 'modern, civilized' nation. If the older kids at the camp were still following tradition they could have overwhelmed the attacker. Sure, some of them would have died but a lot more of them would have survived. I'm sorry, 3, but I tend to agree with Richard.

I think you're referring to this beauty, the Puukko: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puukko

 

[Boxlicker101]

I've got money that his "explanation" will make about as much sense as the Uni-bombers. The problem with mad geniuses is that they are so ingenious, especially when it comes to hurting other people.

You're right about his "explanation." http://news.yahoo.com/norway-suspect-deems-killings-atrocious-needed-013354792.html

 

[Boxlicker101]

I think you're referring to this beauty, the Puukko: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puukko

That doesn't look like much of a weapon although, of course, it could be used as one. It looks more like a tool. I certainly see nothing uncivilized about carrying one of them on your belt.

 

[Liar]

It appears this maniac had help. Survivors are claiming there was more than one shooter. http://translate.google.com/transla...otf=1&sl=no&tl=en&u=http://www.vg.no/&act=url

Six more guys have been arrested as suspects in what Noweigan police say is in "connection" to the attacks.

 

[Liar]

Six more guys have been arrested as suspects in what Noweigan police say is in "connection" to the attacks.

Update: The suspicions have been dismissed. They were apparenly just squatters in an abandoned building connected to the shooter's past.

So we're back at the lone crazy person theory.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Somehow, somewhere we really, really need to find a way to identify the potentially psychotic among us and intervene. The horror and chaos an individual can cause all by him(usually)self is too great to ignore.

 

[PennLady]

Somehow, somewhere we really, really need to find a way to identify the potentially psychotic among us and intervene. The horror and chaos an individual can cause all by him(usually)self is too great to ignore.

Unfortunately, ideas like that have shades of 1984 and Minority Report.

 

[CorruptedInnocence]

Somehow, somewhere we really, really need to find a way to identify the potentially psychotic among us and intervene. The horror and chaos an individual can cause all by him(usually)self is too great to ignore.

lol, There really is not a concrete way of doing so, Not without harming countless innocent people in the process, Because thats in us all, Every single person in the world has the ability and potential to do exactly what that guy did, All those guys who went postal, All those serial killers, Usually its just a split second snap decision that gets carried through with. Im not saying what that guy did was okay, Its horrible and all those people shouldnt of had to die because of him, But you cant over react like that because of people like him otherwise you'll cause just as big of a problem, Guy above was talking about guns. Yea the guy in the report who did all that stuff had one, Guy above probably only meant that if someone had shot the guy when he first started going off, Might of saved a few lives?
Anyways yea, I really hope everyones friends and family in that area are okay, And our hearts go out to all of you im sure :c