If FBI is monitoring these groups,how didn't they catch on this?Auvinen posted his video on youtube the night before the act describing his plan.One would imagine mighty FBI would have some kind of an application to search youtube and alike with keywords like murder,killing,massacre etc.every half an hour or so.The Finnish police will undoubtedly engage such an application in the future,I hope.

Wake up,stupid.School's out

Bob, Järventaus, Finland

" If I were Finland, I would be embarrassed with myself. If guns were such a concern, you would have passed it before this isolated incident, not as a gesture." (Roger, Oregon)

But that is just it: Guns were not a concern. There are guns, but until now crimes committed using them have been almost non-existent.

EP, Espoo, Finland"

This isn't as much about guns as it is a worldview - take a closer look at the kid's T-shirt: "HUMANITY IS OVERRATED."

Auvinen is merely fulfilling the sum total of public education, which has been telling these kids - for generations that - they are byproducts of rocks, microbes, or some other flavor of primordial soup.

In this worldview, the taking of a human life is no different than squishing a bug.

Bee, Anacortes, WA USA

The main issues here, as in other school shootings, are: the role of psychiatric illness, the responsibility of bystanders to report questionable behaviors, the administration's ability to respond to such reports and/or to be proactive to symptoms of mental illness, and the power of the internet.
Security does not come in the form of metal detectors and increased police presence, since the internet can instantly and invisibly spread the virus of violence.
Protection comes in the form of students trained to break the code of silence, and qualified professionals who provide services to the victims of social isolation and mental illness.

Dr. Susan Lipkins, Port Washingtom, New York, USA

Guns don't kill people. PEOPLE kill people.

R. Scott, Austin, TX

In my opinion we shouldn’t consider this tragic event just related to something that happened in Finland. I think this horrible fact has nothing to do with the Finnish lifestyle or social conditions. Probably young generations are loosing the contact with real life, and this is quite a problem.

Davide Spedalieri, Roma, Italy

i don't think his behaviour is from the internet. Maybe it is the result of backlog in his mind for long time.

nicholas, zhengzhou,

I doubt this'll be posted; I've posted at least a dozen comments on "Have Your Say", none of which went through, probably due to the Times looking to maintain its crafted image.

Every time these shootings happen, people turn into imbeciles, extensively analyzing every character trait, preference, etc. of the killers and assume that everything is related to that incident. It's a bastardized Argumentum ad Hitlerum: "If Hitler ate vegetables, vegetables lead to Nazism." This happened in the US when ignorant, sensationalist parents thought Doom somehow contributed to the Columbine shootings.

Maybe a few things were related to the killer's shootings, but I doubt that the idiotic speculation from the media is anything but that; certainly much of the array of "factors" is irrelevant. Finland was considering gun legislation after this: If I were Finland, I would be embarrassed with myself. If guns were such a concern, you would have passed it before this isolated incident, not as a gesture.

Roger, Eugene, Oregon

Times wrote:
"More concrete measures to protect schools have been ruled out. “I am firmly against metal detectors in schools,” Mr Karpela said."

True.
Metal detectors is the american way. There people do something to create an illusion of better protection, when they should concentrate on the real roots of the problem. If you treat everyone as a possible suspect or probable criminal, you fail to create an atmosphere of trust and loyalty.

The iron gates would make it harder to shoot inside the protected area. But not impossible. And outside the gates, people could still be shot. Therefore, total waste of resources.

If same resources would be put to finding out the biggest worries of the youngsters, to identify the depressed or most troubled, and to provide means for helping them - wouldn't the outcome be much better in long run?

They are trying to figure out concrete actions here, but more on the "softer" side. It will take more time, and is not as instantly visible.
Good luck.

Leevi, Helsinki, Finland

"These guns are mostly used for hunting" is like saying "automobiles are mostly used for transportation"...yes...but the latter can also be used in a bank robbery, a hit-and-run killing, drunk driving...Auvinen could have easily killed ten times as many people with several gallons of gasoline and a butane lighter, if that were the case would there be hand-wringing of petro sales to high schoolers?

Eduardo Molinillo, Cuernavaca, Mexico

"Unlike in the case of Dillon Cossey there is no sign that Auvinen’s parents were drawn into his fantasy world. Dillon Cossey’s mother has been arrested in America for buying weapons for her son. Auvinen’s parents are regarded as somewhat bohemian in the small dormitory township of Jokela. His father plays part time in a jazz band and composes his own music; Auvinen’s mother is an activist for the Greens. "

Sorry Folks - Wrong again.

His mother was a member of a militant Finnish eco/green group called Elonkehrä.

Auvinen´s mother was a follower of mr Pentti Linkola.

Check this out - You may learn something.

Kullervo Kalervonpoika, Hellsinki, Finland

Sm in Vancouver, I'm sorry to say but there are already restrictions on what young people can buy and see. They're called parents.

There were always temptations for young people to access inappropriate and dangerous things. Somehow or another, parents today seem to have allowed this 'internet' thing to abrogate their responsibilitiies toward their children.

John Blackley, Austin, TX, USA

It's time the NRA starts lobbying the Finnish authorities to promote the gun culture in Finland and especially in the National Education System. If one remembers well, this honorable institution's position is that if the other students and teachers had been armed, the shootings in various high schools and colleges would have been less lethal.
In a way the NRA is right: modern wars kill more unarmed civilians than soldiers.

Ronnie, PARIS, FRANCE

Assuming that a permit allows a person to have more than one gun, the number of permits is the number of gun owners. In which case 12.2% of Finns have guns.

Martin, Portsmouth, Hampshire

we claim we live in the modern world peacefully ,but in reality we filled with asymptomatic psychological disease ,some time explode as what we see here....this our responsibility -the parents- to follow our sons ideas and to correct the deflected one

ahmed, kualalumpur, malaysia

So Mr. Boyes really has been dispatched to Finland then. Can we start to see this is an individual act, maybe inspired and fed by other individuals elsewhere, facilitated by the modern communication technologies, available to a degree in the UK as well? And forget about the 19th century mythologies about a remote, romantic and violent country in the fringes of Europe?

Karl, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Im very disappointed with the The Times, the quality and background work done on recent articles regarding this Finnish incident has fallen very low.

Finland is not a country where people are depressed, carry guns and have issues with people around them. Anymore than other countries in europe.

Get reporting back on track and stick to the facts please.

Aleksi Ranta, Tampere, Finland

i am shocked.

Trina, Huangyan,Taizhou,Zhejiang , China

I never thought I would say this but since having kids I have become very aware of certain forms of entertainment. I do believe there is a direct correlation with violent games, films, the internet and gangster music. with the way society has and is changing. I am not saying it warps everyones minds, it doesn't but some people are sensative and that one person can ruin peoples lives.

There should be restrictions on when and what is available to the public, Mary Whitehouse had a point let's bring some of those values back before the world goes mad.

SM, Vancouver,

There are about 1,6 million legal guns in Finland owned by 650 000 individuals and communitys. 56 guns per 100 persons does not mean that 56 % of Finns have guns. That actually means that these 650 00 individuals and communitys have approximately 2,5 guns each. These guns are mostly used for hunting.

Aino, Turku, Finland

Well i think they only include people over 15 and up to 65 in the statement, so its only around 3,4 million, then you have to take away people not eligible for permits ( people in prison menatally sick and so on) not sure what the figure is but its gets pretty close to 50%

rob, munich, germany

As far as I've understood, there are 650 000 gun permits and 1,6 million legal guns in Finland (population 5,3 million). Hunters usually own more than one gun. In other words, guns are common but the statement that 56% of the Finns own a gun is false.

Elisa, Helsinki, Finland