School Shooting Shocks Austria, One of Europe’s Countries with the Highest Rate of Guns per Capita

Austria is a stunned country lacking answers after a 21-year-old shot 10 people at a high school in the city of Graz (south) before committing suicide on Tuesday. No explanations can be found, if there are any. No one understands what happened, what led a local boy to enter his old school and shoot students who could have been his classmates just a few years ago. Nor how he could legally obtain a pistol and a shotgun. Additionally, there is confusion about why no one—the family, educators, or police—saw this coming.

“Graz stands united,” reads a black banner with white letters, hung on the fence of BORG Dreierschützengasse, the federal school in the nearby neighborhood of the central train station. There are candles and flowers on the ground, a teddy bear, and a white wreath left by fans of the local football team, Sturm Graz. It is nearly midnight, and about twenty people are gathered in silence. They are in small groups, speaking quietly, some wearing dark clothing. At the school entrance, a sign that someone tragically ignored reads: “Unauthorized entry forbidden.”

Austria is one of the most armed countries in the world, according to the 2018 Small Arms Survey. With 30 firearms for every 100 residents, it ranks 12th globally, ahead of countries like Kosovo, Pakistan, or Iraq, and only surpassed within the EU by Finland and Cyprus.

The unanswered questions are numerous, and in the coming days, some may find answers while others spark national debates. All of this will come and take time to digest. For now, this is a country in shock over a crime that seemed to happen only thousands of kilometers away, in schools in Kansas or California, in hyper-violent places, far from the happy Austria, the myth of the placid and calm small alpine and Danubian country, often disproven throughout history, yet still rooted in collective identity.

The crime in Graz is, as Chancellor Christian Stocker stated, a “national tragedy,” a “dark day” for Austria. Three days of mourning have been declared, along with the suspension of public events in the federal state of Styria, where Graz is located.

This is a polarized country, with the far-right being the leading parliamentary force, but the massacre opens a chapter of unity. Lacking apparent political motivations, it may avoid partisan exploitation, although it can lead to debates about gun regulation or the mental health care system. Federal President Alexander van der Bellen stated: “Today and in the difficult days ahead, our country will demonstrate that our strength lies in coexistence with one another.”

The incident began around ten in the morning when a young man who had studied at the same school entered the premises armed, passed through two classrooms, and started shooting. In one of those classrooms, he had been a student a few years prior, though he had not completed his studies. He then went to a restroom and shot himself. The police had received alert calls regarding screams and gunshots, and according to authorities, the swift intervention of the Cobra special forces prevented a higher death toll.

It is known that the assailant was Austrian, living near Graz, a city of 300,000 inhabitants located 50 kilometers from the Slovenian border, and that he lawfully obtained his gun license. He had no criminal record. Local press reported that he purchased the firearms shortly before the attack and left a farewell note in his room. Several outlets also noted he may have been a victim of bullying. Most of the deceased are teenagers, with one adult woman dying in the hospital. The shooting left 11 serious injuries.

The identity of the perpetrator has not yet been revealed. Another question in the air is how he acquired the weapon since, to obtain a legal permit in Austria, one must not only be over 21 years old but also justify the intended use. A psychological examination is also required to show that the owner “does not have a tendency to handle weapons carelessly or use them recklessly, especially in situations of psychological stress.”

The newspaper Die Presse states regarding the Small Arms Survey that the number of officially registered firearms in the country is significantly lower: 1.5 million weapons in the hands of about 374,000 people. This publication adds that the number of registered firearms has increased, attributed to the “crises and insecurities of recent years that have led to private rearmament.” It also notes that compared to other countries, arming oneself is relatively easier. For example, gun ownership for hunting is generally unregulated.

The Graz attack is the most severe of its kind that Austria has experienced. According to the newspaper Der Standard, in 2018, an 18-year-old shot another student in a school in Upper Austria, and in 1997, a 15-year-old student killed a teacher and severely injured another in Lower Austria; in 1993, a 13-year-old student seriously injured a director at a school in that same region.

The shock can be understood because of the magnitude of the crime, but also because of the setting. “Security fosters fear of the uncertain,” wrote Austrian Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek, a novelist adept at exploring her country’s darkest folds.

But this time, it is the uncertainty, in its most horrifying version, that has burst into daily life, and as several politicians reminded in Graz, into the quintessential safe space—or at least it should be—where families trust the education of their children, where nothing bad should ever happen. Not in placid Austria, a country that, like others in its vicinity, has recently faced the blow of terrorism but will hardly become accustomed to massacres like the one on Tuesday. Because they seem foreign, from another place.