|
The response to a school shooting that occurred at the Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences in Kauhajoki,〔 a city in Western Finland, on 23 September 2008〔 was widespread. In the shooting, 22-year-old culinary arts student Matti Juhani Saari shot and killed ten people before committing suicide. Eight students had been killed ten months before in the Jokela school shooting in southern Finland. The Government of Finland held a crisis meeting, and declared a national day of mourning for September 24, with ministers agreeing that Finland's laws pertaining to gun ownership should be reviewed. Suggestions included introducing legislation to aid police officers in accessing information about the mental and physical health of applicants for firearms licenses, and the right to request further information if the applicant had a history of using medication. The question whether or not private persons should be allowed to own handguns was also raised. The Finnish Police increased Internet surveillance, and investigated over 200 threats against schools. In November the police announced the increased surveillance had stopped a potential attack against a school. At the affected college all lessons were cancelled for the remainder of the week, and classes were relocated to a temporary facility. The town's other schools remained open. A candlelight vigil was held near the school grounds on the day after the shooting, and Kauhajoki Church held a memorial service on the evening of September 23. The Finnish Red Cross announced that some of the proceeds from its annual fund drive would be contributed towards helping students and teachers affected by the incident. ==Government== After the incident a crisis meeting was held, with government ministers, chairs of the parliamentary groups, and police officials all in attendance.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.yle.fi/news/id102402.html )〕 Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen described it as a "tragic day" and appealed for unity in the hope "that events like these will not happen again." A national day of mourning was declared for the following day, and Vanhanen travelled to Kauhajoki to meet with students. After the meeting, Justice Minister Tuija Brax said that Finland's laws pertaining to gun ownership should be reviewed "as soon as possible", and Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen pledged government action. Neither specified what measures the government would be taking.〔 Finland's population owned an averaged total of 2.9 million firearms within a population of 5.2 million people,〔 and thus ranked as having the third highest gun ownership rate in the world, behind only the US and Yemen, according to a 2007 small arms survey carried out by the Graduate Institute of International Studies. The government had previously discussed raising the minimum age for owning a gun from 15 (with parental consent) to 18 after the Jokela High School shooting (Pekka-Eric Auvinen, the shooter in that incident, was aged 18), but no law regarding this had taken effect. On this occasion, both President Tarja Halonen,〔 and the Prime Minister said that a review was necessary, with Vanhanen suggesting that the time had come to question whether or not private persons should be allowed to own handguns, in particular automatic pistols (the kind used by Saari being a semi-automatic). He argued that Finland would only be bringing its laws into closer alignment with gun regulations the EU had set the previous summer.〔 Halonen and Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb said that the government would discuss a divergence in policy between gun control for hunting rifles and handguns.〔 Hunting remains a highly popular sport in Finland,〔 and the Finnish Shooting Sport Federation executive director Risto Aarrekivi said that if people wanted to commit a crime such as this, they would gain access to a handgun regardless of the law. However, he did concede that allowing beginners to buy real firearms as their first guns should be reconsidered.〔 Interior Minister Anne Holmlund, who had ordered the original investigation into the police officers' conduct in the Kauhajoki incident, said that legislation would be introduced to aid police officers in accessing information about the mental and physical health of applicants for firearms licenses. This included, potentially, the ability to gain detailed information about an applicant's health, the right to subpoena records from the Finnish Social Insurance Institution, and the right to request further information if the applicant had a history of using medication. In addition to this, Holmlund said that the referencing process for being granted a firearms license would be intensified: two referees would have to be personally interviewed before a license was granted. Holmlund also pointed to legislation of the EU as her starting point. Other reforms, that she said would be introduced as late as spring 2009, included a national register of gun owners. Parliamentary debates occurred on whether to raise the age at which one could own a gun, or whether to put further checks in place, in September 2009. Despite these assurances that change would be forthcoming, Holmlund came under considerable pressure from some members of parliament, particularly those in the Left Alliance, to resign for not acting sooner. Leading the call for her deposition was Anneli Lapintie; Tarja Filatov, parliamentary group leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP) also questioned the government over what it had done since the Jokela incident. Vanhanen launched a defence of the government by saying that iniquiries were ongoing, even into the Jokela case. A survey by pollster Taloustutkimus for YLE showed that dissension towards Holmlund was not widespread: only a quarter of members from smaller parties felt she should step down, only 10% of SDP members (with 80% supporting her to stay on), and 90% of the government's partners wanted her to hold onto her ministry. Amongst the population, 82% felt she should continue. Brax said that personal data protection legislation needed to be adjusted to allow a freer access to information among professionals.〔 She said that this had impeded the investigation into the Jokela incident, and meant that people in the teaching profession were left unable to help students to some degree.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Reactions to Kauhajoki school shooting」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|