Gun-Free Country Rocked by Knife Attack That Leaves 9 Dead at School
At least nine children were killed Friday in a middle-school attack that left at least 10 other students injured, The New York Times reported.
Officials said seven girls and two boys were killed. Initial reports gave the death toll as seven.
#UPDATE Death toll of Friday's knife-wielding attack in NW China's Shaanxi Province jumps to nine, including seven female and two male middle school students. Ten others injured are still receiving treatment. https://t.co/7uAHuUkBFI pic.twitter.com/ObikYXqeJV
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) April 28, 2018
The attack took place in Shaanxi Province in the northwest of China, CBS reported.
The BBC identified the attacker as a 28-year-old man named Zhao. Authorities said the attack was the man’s revenge for having been bullied at the school, which would have been between 14 and 15 years ago.
“He attacked students because he hated the students there,” said a statement by the Mizhi County police.
Chinese citizens are not allowed to own guns, which means knives are often used as the weapon of choice to commit attacks.
I guess gun bans don’t prevent mass killings in schools! Who would’ve thunk it?!?! https://t.co/8R8mNWeU7u #GunControl #KnifeAttack #SchoolMassacre #2A #FreedomFirst
— Benjamin Preuss (@BenPreuss) April 28, 2018
Where’s that Hogg kid? Breaking: 7 Students Killed, 12 Injured In KNIFE Attack At Middle School In Communist China with Beyond Maximum Gun Control #Evil Exists -Laws restricting the Ability of Citizens to protect themselves does nothing to stop evil https://t.co/2rV2z70bNj
— ConserValidity (@ConserValidity) April 28, 2018
https://twitter.com/starcrosswolf/status/990303081538641920
CNN reported that last year, a man attacked 11 kindergarten students with a knife, none of whom were killed. The year before that, 10 children were attacked in a school stabbing before the man who committed the crime killed himself.
In 2016, a man in the southern province of Hainan stabbed 10 children before killing himself, authorities said. And another man killed three students at a school in 2014 before jumping off a building.
Knife attacks in China are often linked to mental illness on the part of the attacker, Reuters reported.
The attack comes as anti-gun activists in the United States are seeking to impose new controls on the availability of firearms, and a spate of knife attacks in Britain has left police there exploring a ban on knives. According to The Mirror, knife attacks in Britain surged 22 percent in 2017.
Joshua Miller, a professor at Smith College, focused on the attacker and not the weapon used.
“The social and cultural context shapes and gives meaning to the act — why this act in this place with these people?” he said.
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