The most recent school killer in Germany fits the usual pattern: young, male and angry. Some killers appear to shoot randomly, some butcher mostly teachers, some focus on killing girls and women. The Winnenden slaughter was of the last type:
Almost all of the victims were female. Eight of the nine students killed were girls, and the three teachers shot by Tim Kretschmer were all women. Seven other women are recovering from serious injuries at a nearby hospital.
Officials have refused to speculate about why the gunman singled out women. But as Heribert Rech, interior minister for the Baden-Wuerttemberg region, said at a news conference. "It is noteworthy that primarily girls were killed -- eight girls and one boy. The teachers killed were women."
As his victims lay wounded on the floor, Kretschmer screamed: "Are you not all dead yet?"
May all his victims have peace. May those who loved them have peace.
But I'm not wishing peace on the journalists and politicians who after noticing the gender of the victims blithely go on to speak about how to prevent similar future massacres without suggesting a single thing to combat the hatred of women that this butchery demonstrates.
Sure, we need better mental health care. Sure, parents and teachers and other adults should pay more attention to depressed teenagers. Sure, guns should be controlled better at home (or shouldn't be there in the first place). But we shouldn't just skim over the misogyny of the Winnenden barbequer.
In fact, the time right now is not to focus on him but on his victims and their lost lives:
Witnesses said that a woman school teacher threw herself over a student to protect her and was shot in cold blood.
Bless her.