1545 The Knives of October

1545 The Knives of October

What’s a mass murderer to do when there’s a school down the street just aching for a slaughter and there’s nary a gun to be had?

That’s an easy question. You get yourself a sword or a big knife, put on a mask -- it’s almost Halloween, after all -- and go to work.

So that’s what one man or near-man did the other day at a school you never heard of in a town you never heard of near a city you may have heard of in a country you haven’t given a thought to since the day in 2005 that you finally had to give up trying to keep your 1962 Volvo in running condition.

Oh, and a country where stuff like this “never” happens.

So, when a guy wearing something like a Darth Vader mask walked into the Kronan School in Trollhattan, 50 miles or so north of Goteborg, no one gave it much of a thought.  At least not at first.

A Halloween prank?  Some prank.  At least two teachers dead, several others and some kids wounded.  That happens here, the dead and injured number far more.  Because here, we have the right to guns but not the right to not get shot.

The violent death of a loved one always is traumatic.  And the scale doesn’t matter, at least to the immediate circle of the victim or victims.

And yet, the scale does matter.  For had Darth had a gun, the death toll surely would be higher.

The cops arrived.  They shot and wounded the knifeman and eventually he died.  

The usual suspects got up and publicly mourned. The country’s prime minister.  The king. Yes in Sweden they don’t have legal machine guns but they do have a king.

About the killer:  as of this posting, they haven’t disclosed his name… not that that matters.  And they’ve been vague about a possible motive.

What’s floating around is that the knifer had no police record, but cops found Nazi “literature” and other indications in his house that he was a right wing, anti-immigrant “freedom fighter.”

“Right wing anti-immigrant” is not a combination one associates with a country known for cold weather, pretty girls, freedom of moral choice, big trucks and relatively safe cars.

Sweden is a place where Americans move to avoid American style racism.  Blacks and whites alike.  Maybe that’s no longer the place to go.

What’s odd is that so far those great lovers of gundome in this country haven’t risen as one to “prove” that they’re right about one thing:  guns or no guns, we humans will find ways to kill each other for no reason.

Well, they aren’t right.  Just look at the scale.

Shrapnel:

--All Clinton had to do to win the debate with the congressional Benghazi vigilantes was keep her mouth shut.  That’s what she did. And that’s why she won.

--The Vatican denies it, but some newspapers in Italy are reporting that Pope Francis has a brain tumor.  It’s probably not so.  But given the resistance to change in Rome, this pope better watch his back.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

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