Prague Mass Murder Shows Copycat Killings are NOT Limited to the USA

On December 21, 2023, a scholar at Charles College in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, killed about 14 folks and injured about two dozen others in a deliberate and premeditated mass homicide.

The killer used a rifle with a telescopic sight and is alleged to have had quite a lot of different firearms with him. The assassin used the benefit of the peak of a multistory constructing to see the folks he was focusing on and as a technique to protect him from fast response.

I imagine it was on Could 30, 2022, in Boise Idaho, Ed Monk and I have been presenters at an armed self-defense course. In his presentation about lively killers, Ed Monk predicted the world would expertise extra mass murders carried out from a top benefit. As I recall, Ed mentioned lively mass killers studied the lively mass murders of others to see what methods labored.

Ed believed some would use the Las Vegas lively mass homicide as a template, partly as a result of it took so lengthy for responders to achieve the mass assassin in that occasion.

One of many first mass murderers utilizing a tall constructing for benefit was Charles Whitman on August 1, 1966. The numbers are just like what occurred in Prague. Whitman killed his spouse and mom, then killed 14 extra from the College of Texas Tower in Austin, TX, whereas wounding a minimum of 31.  A number of residents fired again at Whitman, and an armed citizen accompanied the police to climb the steps to confront Whitman and cease the killing. Whitman was discovered to have a mind tumor and was presumed to be insane.

Whitman didn’t turn into an icon within the media. Troubled folks didn’t seem to see his mass homicide as a technique to obtain fame throughout a public suicide. The copycat impact didn’t happen till a long time later, with huge adjustments within the American and international media, the Web, and a major degradation in public morals.

Rumors are circulating that the mass assassin in Prague murdered his father to acquire the firearm used for many of the killing. Within the mass homicide at Sandy Hook College in Connecticut, the killer murdered his mom to acquire the weapons used on the faculty. There may be media affirmation the killer’s father was discovered murdered at house.

It’s too early to make sure exactly what firearms have been used within the mass homicide in Prague. It seems a ZEV 30 was the first weapon. It has been written the rifle was thrown off the balcony earlier than the killer dedicated suicide with a shotgun.

An image of a rifle with a damaged inventory, damaged pistol grip, and damaged journal is suspected of being the scoped rifle used within the mass homicide.  The image was posted at reddit.com. It seems to have Czeck phrases related to the supply. The rifle seems on cobblestones as if it was dropped from a substantial top. The provenance of the picture is unsure.

There may be hypothesis the rifle was a ZEV 30 in 7.62 NATO.  It’s unknown if the killer had a license for the rifle or killed his father, who owned the rifle, with a purpose to receive it from his father’s secure.

The Czech police are anticipated to do knowledgeable job of investigating these murders. It should take some time to perform. The Czech Republic has very strict legal guidelines about possessing and carrying firearms, though they’re some much less restrictive in Europe.

Mass public murders happen everywhere in the world. On a per capita foundation, the US is in the course of the pack, in line with crime with firearms knowledgeable John Lott.

About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a navy officer, was on the College of Wisconsin Pistol Crew for 4 years, and was first licensed to show firearms security in 1973. He taught the Arizona hid carry course for fifteen years till the aim of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has levels in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Division of Protection after a 30 yr profession in Military Analysis, Growth, Testing, and Analysis.