The killing at school leaves stunned Austria and France, looking for answers

Two shocking attacks within two hours of each other, in France and Austria, left parents and governments to be wandered and with a loss of how to protect students from accidental, deadly violence.

Around 08:15 on Tuesday, a 14-year-old boy from an ordinary family in Nogent, Eastern France, pulled out a kitchen knife during checking the school bag and a fatal stabbed school assistant.

Not long after, in Southeastern Austria, a 21-year-old, who gave up school three years earlier, entered the Dreierschützengasse High School in Graz at 09:43 and shot nine students and a teacher with a Glock 19 pistol and fired a rifle.

In both countries, there is a search for solutions and a greater focus on young people who resort to such violence.

Austria has never observed a school attack on this scale, but the French piercing happened during a government program aimed at dealing with crime growth with a knife.

Graz’s shooter, called by Austrian media as Arthur A, is described by police as a very introverted man who has retired in the virtual world.

His “great passion” was first -person shooter games and he had social contacts with other gamers on the Internet, according to Michael Lonneger, the chief of criminal investigation in Styria, the country in which it happened.

A former student at Dreierschützengasse School, Arthur, failed to complete his studies.

Arriving at the school, he put on his headphones and fired glasses before continuing a seven -minute shooting. He then committed suicide in a school bathroom.

He owned both weapons, withstood a psychological test to have a license and held several weapons training sessions earlier this year at a Graz Shooting Club.

This has caused a great debate in Austria about whether his weapons laws need to be tightened – and the level of care available to problem young people.

It turned out that the shooter was rejected by the compulsory military service of the country in July 2021.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, Michael Bauer, told the BBC that Arthur A was found to be “psychologically unfit” for service after testing. But he said that Austria’s legal system prevented the army from passing the results of such tests.

There is now calls for this law to be changed.

Alex, the mother of a 17-year-old boy who survived after the shooting, told the BBC that she had to do more so as not to prevent people like Arthur but to give up school first.

“We know … that when people shoot so, it’s most of all when they feel alone and are out and are out. And we don’t know how to return them, in society, in the groups, in their peers groups,” she said.

“We, as grown up, have received responsibility for it and we have to take it now.”

President Alexander van der Belen raised the possibility of tightening the Austria weapons laws when visiting Graz after the attack: “If we come to the conclusion that Austria’s weapons laws must be changed to ensure more safety, then we will do it.”

Austria has one of the most armed civilian groups in Europe, with approximately 30 firearms per 100 people.

Although there were shootings here at school, they were far smaller and were far from less casualties.

The mayor of Graz, Elke Carr, believes that no private person should have a weapon at all. “Weapon licenses are released too quickly,” she told Austria at Orf TV. “Only the police should carry a weapon, not individuals.”

The armed gendarmes attended the entrance of Françoise Dolto Secondary School in Nogent, 100 km (62 miles) east of Paris, when a teenager removed a kitchen knife 20 cm and repeatedly stabbed Melanie D, who was 31 and had a four -year -old son.

The boy, accused of committing the murder, told police that he had been blamed on Friday by another assistant at the school to kiss his girlfriend.

As a result, he had malice against school assistants as a whole and apparently decided to kill one. The schools were closed on Monday for a bank holiday, and Tuesday was his first day back.

The initial evaluation of the State Prosecutor was that the boy, called Quentin, originated from a normally functioning family and had no criminal or mental records.

However, the child also looked separated and without emotions. ADEPT of violent video games, he showed “charm with death” and “lack of reference points related to the value of human life.”

Nogent’s attack does not meet the pattern of antisocial youth crimes or abuse with bands observed in France so far.

There is neither a proposal for indoctrination over social media.

According to the prosecutor, the boy did a little of that. He was twice against fellow students and was stopped for one day every time.

There is no breakdown of family or deprivation and school employees define it as “a sociable, pretty good student, well integrated into the life of the establishment.”

This year he was even declared the Ambassador class by harassment.

With all the calls for more security in schools, this crime happened literally under the noses of the armed gendarmes. As the Interior Minister Bruno Deptile said, some crimes will happen, no matter how many police officers you unfold.

For more information on the boy’s spirit, we have to wait for the report of the full psychologist and it may be that there have been missed signs or there are family details that we do not yet know.

On the face of him, he is perhaps rather a middle-class loner, and his obvious normality suggests a crime caused by internalized mental processes, not by an association managed by peers or emulation.

This is what hits the chord in France. If an ordinary boy can be so from watching too many violent videos, then who’s next?

It is significant that the French government has just approved, showing the British Netflix series as an auxiliary in schools.

There are differences, of course.

The boy, arrested for the murder of a teenager in the television series, gives way to evil “toxic men” influences social media – but there is the same question for teenagers to be vulnerable to isolation online.

There are calls for action throughout the political spectrum, but a little agreement on what the priority should be, nor do they hope that everything can make a big difference.

Prior to the murder, President Emmanuel Macron angered the law by saying they were too obsessed with crime and not interested in other issues such as the environment.

The nogen attack put him on his hind leg and he repeated his promise to ban social media in under 15-year-old children.

But there are two difficulties. One is the practicality of the measure, which in theory is considered by the EU, but is amenable to endless delay.

The other is that according to the prosecutor, the boy was not particularly interested in social media. It was the violent video games that was his thing.

Prime Minister Francois Bayro said sales of knives under 15 will be banned. But the boy took his own from home.

Bayrou says airport -style metal -style metal -style metal -style metal -style metal -style is to be tested in schools, but most managers are opposite.

The populist right wants more stringed sentences for teens who wear knives and exclude destructive students from regular classes.

But the boy at a nogent was not a problem child.

Regarding the only measure that everyone says is needed is more providing school doctors, nurses and psychologists to find early signs of students coming out of the rails.

This, of course, will require a lot of money, which is another thing that France doesn’t have much.