According to the authorities, 11 people were killed, including the shooter, in the worst school shooting in Graz, Austria. The shooter was a 21-year-old former student who had no previous police record. Police said that the assailant used his two illegally owned weapons – a long gun and a handgun – during the bloodshed. Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker told reporters that today is a dark day in the country’s history. Stocker called it a national tragedy that deeply shocked the nation, and he announced three days of national mourning, with the flag lowered to half-staff at official buildings.

After reports of a shooting at 10 am at the building, the authorities sent special forces to the BORG Dreierschutzengasse High School. Over 300 police officers participated in the operation to rescue the students and staff, as well as to evacuate the school building. After the massacre, the shooter, who hadn’t completed his studies, took his own life in the bathroom. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said Tuesday that six of the dead were female and three male, other than the shooter. Karner noted that 12 people were also wounded in the incident.

Austria’s Red Cross said that it had ordered 65 ambulances to the shooting scene, and around 158 emergency staff members participated to treat the injured. To overcome the trauma of students and parents, another 40 specially trained psychologists were counseling them. The organization also urged residents to come forward and donate blood to save precious lives.

History of Violence and Gun Laws in Austria

The violence on June 10 seemed to be the deadliest attack in Austria’s post-World War II history. In 2020, a suspect killed four people in Vienna, and he was also killed in a shooting. Over twenty people, including a police officer, were wounded in the incident. Moreover, a man killed three people and injured over thirty in June 2015 when he drove through a crowd in downtown Graz with an SUV.

Austria has some of the more liberal gun laws in the European Union, and some weapons like shotguns and rifles can be purchased from the age of 18 without a permit. Gun dealers only check if there is no weapons ban on the customer and if the weapons are registered in the central weapons register. Other weapons, such as semi-automatic or automatic guns, are more challenging to obtain. To purchase these firearms, customers must have a firearms permit or a gun ownership card.