2 July 2003 COBURG, 9am (3am EDT)

A 16-year-old pupil killed himself in a German school classroom after shooting a teacher in the thigh Wednesday, police said.

No other children or staff were injured in the incident in the secondary school in the northern Bavarian town of Coburg.

Police said the boy pulled a gun from his trousers pocket and fired two shots which narrowly missed a female teacher, hitting the blackboard behind her.

Fellow pupils fled, but another female teacher who had run towards the room from a neighbouring class was shot in the thigh.

The pupil then took out a larger gun from his rucksack and shot himself in the mouth in the presence of a classmate who had been forced to stay in the room, chief crime investigator Reinhard Mueller said.

Both guns were owned by the boy's father, a member of a local gun club, who had kept the weapons locked up in a safe. The boy's grandfather is the town's gun club and firing range inspector.

The injured teacher was treated in hospital and later released.

The incident prompted a major response from police who put into place a coordinated action plan set up following the Erfurt school massacre of April last year when a 19-year-old pupil killed 16 people before turning his gun on himself.

But authorities said they had no information on a possible motive for the attack. The boy had been a quiet and unobtrusive pupil with no history of aggression or poor behaviour, Bavarian Education and Cultural Affairs Minister Monika Hohlmeier said.

Although he had to repeat a school year last year, he would have advanced next term with his classmates to the ninth year.

However his school work had noticeably deteriorated over the second half of the school year, and the school had contacted his parents to discuss the problem, Hohlmeier said.

For example in music he had gone from twice earning highest marks to receiving the lowest possible grade.

Hohlmeier said the contrast between the boy's work in the first and second halves of the year was so marked that "in the last few months something must have happened".


DPA

I'm sure it's all America's fault.... [rolleyes]

[rolleyes] & I'll say it again [rolleyes]

Did he at least used a Walther?

NsB

Ban all Germans.  Do it for the children.

what is it with german school shootings?

[b]BAN GERMANS![/b]

all the school shootings I here about in gun control countries are always from "the shooting club"
that really sucks they aren't going to have any legal ownership after this.

Ever notice how almost all school shootings are perpetrated by kids?  No kids, no school shootings.  Ban Kids, it's for the children!

I bet guns are banned altogether in Germany after this. That ought to save their kids.

Weren't almost all the Guns banned in germany already?  (yes, I'm ignorant here, and was under the impression that they are almost as bad off as the UK)

Edited to fix cApitaliZatioN

Say bye-bye to your guns Germans!

AND IT WAS SWITZERLAND'S FAULT!

Every gun problem for Europe IS SWITERZLAND'S FAULT. Just ask the EU.

CRC

Adults still attend schools.

Ban schools!  No schools, no school shootings!

[img]http://www.hyperbooks.com/images/TimeToDiePreview.JPG[/img]

Everyone knows it is because they are socialists. Darn Germans.

And to think, he could have invaded France, all by himself and lived the life all little boys dream of.

French whenches to abuse and all the wine he can drink.

What a waste.

Ya might as well. They get blamed for everything else already, so this small extra shouldn't bother them at all [;D][:D]

lets see...

strict firearms laws..
locked in a safe..
trained owners..

a kid somehow get's ahold of it and it's the firearms that are the problem?


ban people, for the guns!

It's Hitler's fault.

You think thats bad!? You wouldnt believe how many people died today from auto related accidents!