Virginia Tech: The European Press Echoes

Photos

Police on Va Tech Campus

see larger image

uploaded by brock

America's most horrendous experience since 9/11 is now some 48 hours behind us. Maybe this is a good time to look at the coverage of the event in some key European print media.

German newsweekly 'Der Spiegel' features an article about an Asian on campus student of Asian roots at VTech who is a fond weapons owner. In the article ("Asian, weaponsowner, guilty") 'Der Spiegel' tries to paint a differnciated picture of American society, as often with the advantage of 20/20 hindsight in its conclusions. 

The conservative German newspapers 'Frankfurter Allgemeine' and 'Die Welt' feature lukewarm comments, not really going anywhere except the typical German circles of indecision, with a conclusion that this could have happened anywhere. They both argue at one point in their comment that a school massacre with many deaths also happened in the German city of Erfurt, despite stricter gun laws. 

German 'Sueddeutsche' hints at the alteration of gun laws in Australia and says that the recommendations from Australia are for the American government to reconsider its stance on arms legislation, after Australia had done the same after own, painful experiences. 

Liberal French newspaper 'Le Monde' concludes its comment with a stark statement that comes as little surprise: "As long as America can't even handle its arms legilation, it will be unable to tackle its problem with violence."

Conservative French paper 'Le Figaro' pretty much limits itself to the description of the incident while Spanish 'El Pais' gives a personal account of a postgraduate Spanish student from VTech campus. 

Norwegian 'Aftenposten' also limits itself to a description of the events at VTech, but has an interesting photo section with photos made by a Norwegian student at the campus on Monday.