Twelve-year-old shooter at Finnish school was bullied

The twelve-year-old suspect in the fatal school shooting in Finland was bullied in the past and cites that as a motive for his attack. This is reported by the Finnish police. Two girls are still seriously injured in hospital. President Alexander Stubb has declared a day of national mourning.

A shooting took place in a primary school in Vantaa, a suburb of the Finnish capital Helsinki, on Tuesday morning. A twelve-year-old student died and two others were seriously injured. The suspected perpetrator fled on foot after the shooting.

About an hour later he was arrested in Helsinki. That happened without violence, although he still had a weapon with him when he was arrested. It is a revolver belonging to a close family member who has a permit for it. Because he is too young to be locked up under Finnish law, he will be handed over to social services after his interrogation.

The primary school in Vantaa has about 800 students between 7 and 15 years old. There are also approximately 90 employees. The shooter is said to have only come to this school at the beginning of this year.

One and a half million permits

Tragic school shootings have occurred in Finland before. In 2007, Pekka-Eric Auvinen opened fire at the high school in Joleka near Helsinki. Six students, a school nurse and the director were then killed, after which the student killed himself. In 2008, a student, Matti Saari, opened fire at a vocational school in Kauhajoki, northwestern Finland. He killed nine students and a staff member before turning the gun on himself.

Finland tightened its gun laws in 2010 and introduced an aptitude test for all gun permit applicants. The age limit was increased from 18 to 20 years. There are more than 1.5 million firearms licenses and approximately 430,000 license holders in the country of 5.6 million inhabitants. Hunting and target shooting are popular activities in Finland.