In the
past week or so, the news has been astonished at this recent story about a
French gunman Mohammed Merah, who is accused of killing seven people. This man
is a self acclaimed al Qaeda jihadist, and he is now dead do to a police shoot
down after a day long siege. This 23 year old first killed a soldier in
Toulouse on March 11th, then four days later killed two more soldiers in
Montauban, then finally he killed four people at a Jewish school in Toulouse,
three of which were children. These senseless and extreme acts of violence were
apparently carried out based on Merah’s specific targeting of certain religious
and ethnic backgrounds. Police found the man based on his mother and brothers
IP addresses on their computers, because this is where he apparently found his
first target based on an ad the victim had posted.
Just like I was last week, I am
disturbed that the internet had such a part in this. The shooter also had
videos of his attacks which are on the internet now as well. It scares me that
this could desensitize some people, especially young people who grew up with
this easy access to the internet. I believe that this concern is very real
because this gunman was only 23, and he was capable of committing such horrors.
I also found it so heartbreaking that he could kill people who were completely
innocent, of all people soldiers defending his nation and school children. I am
worried that these increasing acts of extremist terrorism will spread and get
worse, and that a new war or conflict will arise to stop it.
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