Lethal school . . . stabbing? slashing? fencing? . . . in Sweden

[Elok]

Whoa. Breaking news! They've just released the attacker's identity, and . . . guys, it's a bit of a shock, I'm warning you:

Spoiler:

[ZEE]

Elok is a nerd.

[Sava]

The Swedish chef bit was almost funny.

I think if you didn't try as hard, maybe?

[Bereta_Eder]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34612000

turns out he was a racist (apart from being mentaly cookoo)

[The Mad Monk]

Aye ... if I am direct witness of an Amok run, I would choose one with the sword a thousand time over one with a gun.
Especially if I can run faster than the attacker and have a better endurance than him.

A running man can slit many throats in one night -- Klingon proverb

[Kidlicious]

If one has a sword you take a chair and bang him on the head with it. good luck if he has a gun

If he has a gun you can shoot him in the face ... if you have a gun.

[Kidlicious]

It now appears the suspect (who has died) might have been some sort of neo-Nazi type. Hard to say. But he posed for photos before going on a rampage: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34602621

Perhaps he watched the first Hellboy movie too many times, then? I really can't think of many Nazi-swordfight images in media we can blame this on for a pat answer.

Don't they have enough sense to leave a manifesto?

[Lorizael]

A running man can slit many throats in one night -- Klingon proverb

Bat'leths are only effective weapons because the script says they are -- Klingon proverb

[Elok]

They appear to be basically giant cleavers with two very inconveniently placed handles. I bet they'd be pretty good if you had some gigantic-ass cloves of garlic to mince--lots of good rocking action there. Ditto if all your enemies were lying on the ground. Actually swinging it, I imagine you'd jab yourself a lot with the pointy parts by accident.

[Proteus_MST]

Actually cleaving someone with it seems to be difficult IMHO considering how much the Center of Mass lies in front of the handles
(would expect the Bat´leth to turn around in your hands when you actually hit someone with it (unless you have a really strong grip)... so that you rather hit the person with the dull side instead with the sharp blade)

[Sava]

I wish we had more "durr ban all knives" type gun advocates here

[Thoth]

Sweden obviously needs more guns. If the other students had been armed with guns, the swordsman would never have been able to kill those two kids.

[NICE MOBIUS]

Yes, because we'll only give the guns to nice people.

[grumbler]

Yes, because we'll only give the guns to nice people.

So you are saying that you will have all the guns?

[Elok]

Actually cleaving someone with it seems to be difficult IMHO considering how much the Center of Mass lies in front of the handles
(would expect the Bat´leth to turn around in your hands when you actually hit someone with it (unless you have a really strong grip)... so that you rather hit the person with the dull side instead with the sharp blade)

It turns out batleths are different from my mental conception of them; I was picturing them as having a smoother, convex edge and being somewhat smaller. A trip to Wiki reveals that they have pointless (har!) spiky bits, are five damn feet long, and the handles are on the convex side for some reason. Awkward to swing effectively, heavy without a good point to leverage that weight with, difficult to sheathe, and great for getting stuck in doors, small spaces and (less likely) corpses. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the whole page is that the guy who designed them had martial arts experience.