Seven Killed In Russian School Shooting

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation via AP

Over and over again, we’re told that mass shootings in general and school shootings, in particular, don’t happen in other countries. We’re told that they’re a uniquely American thing. So, by that logic, we should never hear about, say, a Russian school shooting.

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That’s the logic, right?

And yet, a school shooting in Russia has left seven people dead.

At least seven people were killed Tuesday, most of them children, in a shooting at a high school in the central Russian city of Kazan, officials and news agency reports said.

Officials said at least one gunman had been involved and detained, though there were unconfirmed reports of two attackers including one who had been killed.

A police spokesman said officers were dispatched to School No. 175 in Kazan, the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan, after reports of shots being fired.

The Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes in Russia, said a local resident born in 2001 had been detained in connection with the attack.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a review of gun control laws after the shooting, while the authorities declared a day of mourning for Wednesday.

Of course, Russian gun laws aren’t exactly on par with a gun-friendly U.S. state. In fact, they make New Jersey look downright lax.

A quick overview from Wikipedia:

Russian citizens over 18 years of age can obtain a firearms license after attending gun-safety classes and passing a federal test and background check. The license is valid for five years and may be renewed. Firearms may be acquired for self-defense, hunting, or sports activities. Carrying permits may be issued for hunting firearms licensed for hunting purposes. Initially, purchases are limited to long smooth-bore firearms and pneumatic weapons with a muzzle energy of up to 25 joules (18 ft⋅lbf). After five years of shotgun ownership, rifles may be purchased. Handguns are generally not allowed, but with the growing popularity of practical shooting events and competitions in Russia in recent years (e.g. IPSC), handgun ownership has now been allowed and the handguns have to be stored at a shooting club. Rifles and shotguns with barrels less than 500 mm (20 in) long are prohibited, as are firearms which shoot in bursts or have more than a 10-cartridge capacity. Suppressors are prohibited. An individual cannot possess more than ten guns (up to five shotguns and up to five rifles) unless they are part of a registered gun collection.

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Now, there’s literally no state in the U.S. with that degree of gun control. Further, there’s no chance of any state being able to get away with that degree of gun control. Not even California would try to go that far with their anti-gun shenanigans.

Any such effort would be smacked down by the courts so fast it would make lawmakers’ heads spin.

And yet, this still happened. Russia still had a school shooting that is just as deadly, if not more so, than many American school shootings. It’s an awful tragedy, to be sure.

Yet if gun control is the only possible solution we’re allowed to talk about, then maybe those anti-gunners would like to tell me which gun laws in Russia are too lax for them. Go on; I’ll wait. What failure of gun control led to this Russian school shooting?

Yeah, just what I thought.

The problem here is people. Some folks are so broken that they think this kind of thing is a good idea. They want to slaughter the innocent for fame, revenge, or whatever other motive these dipsticks delude themselves into believing to justify their actions. Until we accept that, we’re going to keep seeing these, not just in the United States but in other nations as well.

Of course, many anti-gunners will go on believing this is a uniquely American situation because this shooting isn’t getting the same attention from the mainstream media as it would have if it had happened within our borders. Part of that is understandable – the U.S. media would understandably be focused on U.S. news – but part of that is also by design. If you see gun control’s failures in other nations, you might start to recognize that it just doesn’t work.

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