Shootings in Utrecht, Netherlands

[Magrat Garlick]

Recent developments: police hit the terror alarm partly because of reports of a FB live stream, which turned out to be a different guy in another part of the country.

The police has so far been little evidence announced connecting him to any existing terror groups, with their key evidence being a suicide note and the indiscriminate shooting.

In the absence of police announcements, social media speculators are happily* doing their thing and the suspect has probably been linked to numerous war crimes In Syria already.

Source
https://www.elsevierweekblad.nl/ned.../om-verdenkt-gokmen-tanis-van-terreur-679114/

 

[StephenZA]

And as usual the media will not cover the whole story; while he was a potential terrorist he was front page news... now he is just another idiot with a gun, it is not 'story' enough.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

tbf here in Netherlands the government has gone through the whole "national mourning", "attack on our norms and values" all that kind of routine. There was even a debate of whether it was appropriate to hold a minute's silence during the Euro qualifier.

 

[StephenZA]

tbf here in Netherlands the government has gone through the whole "national mourning", "attack on our norms and values" all that kind of routine. There was even a debate of whether it was appropriate to hold a minute's silence during the Euro qualifier.

I was talking less the local and more the international attitude....

 

[Burgey]

What are gun laws like in the Netherlands compared with other euro countries?

 

[Magrat Garlick]

What are gun laws like in the Netherlands compared with other euro countries?

Fairly strict. Guns are very uncommon, except in hands of police. Only weapons in Category 3 are allowed to the general public, and they are designed for hunters and sport shooters. Open carry is banned.

 

[Burgey]

I haven’t been following this case too closely, did this bloke have the weapons illegally, or was he a licenced shooter? Either way just horrific

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Not enough has been announced. Information is privileged until the case begins, and that could take months.

 

[Burgey]

Fair enough too. Cheers.

 

[Top_Cat]

Netherlands has a significant illegal gun trade and a lot of those illegal firearms end up in Aussie ports unless the picture has changed significantly in the last decade. Whether this is related, who knows.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Netherlands has a significant illegal gun trade and a lot of those illegal firearms end up in Aussie ports unless the picture has changed significantly in the last decade. Whether this is related, who knows.

This is definitely true. You don't see those weapons in the street though.

(Because everybody knows this, this means various police are armed as a matter of course, which has some knock-on effects on trauma/complex PTSD victims. It's probably a line of inquiry for local police.)