December 31st, 2009
Gunman kills 5 in Finland, then self
A gunman clad in black went on a shooting rampage Thursday, killing his ex-girlfriend then slaying four workers at a suburban shopping mall near Helsinki before apparently turning his gun on himself, police said.
Finnish police said one woman and three men were shot dead Thursday morning at the Sello shopping mall in Espoo, six miles west of Helsinki.
And this:
The ex-girlfriend, a Finnish woman born in 1967, also worked at the mall and had taken out a restraining order against Shkupolli, police said.
Restraining orders only work for those who abide by the law. Of course, few law abiders are really enough of a threat to require a restraining order in the first place. In any event, a court order won’t stop a determined killer any more than a law against killing will.
It sounds as if he killed the ex-girlfriend in a nearby apartment, went to the mall and killed four mall workers, then went back to his apartment and killed himself. Authorities haven’t said whether the mall workers were specifically targeted, but it sounds like he went there with a purpose and left when he had completed it.
A witness said he used a “long-barreled pistol.”
January 5th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
[...] Once again in Finland, as GunPundit reports. Finland is has more guns per capita than many European countries, but handguns are pretty heavily restricted, especially after several high profile school shootings, which caused Finnish authorities to deny permits for handguns larger than .22 caliber. Apparently the gunman used a 9mm pistol. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. [...]