On December 21, 2023, a student at Charles University in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, killed about 14 people and injured about two dozen others in a planned and premeditated mass murder.
The killer used a rifle with a telescopic sight and is said to have had a number of other firearms with him. The murderer used the advantage of the height of a multistory building to see the people he was targeting and as a way to shield him from immediate response.
I believe it was on May 30, 2022, in Boise Idaho, Ed Monk and I were presenters at an armed self-defense course. In his presentation about active killers, Ed Monk predicted the world would experience more mass murders conducted from a height advantage. As I recall, Ed said active mass killers studied the active mass murders of others to see what techniques worked.
Ed believed some would use the Las Vegas active mass murder as a template, in part because it took so long for responders to reach the mass murderer in that event.
One of the first mass murderers using a tall building for advantage was Charles Whitman on August 1, 1966. The numbers are similar to what happened in Prague. Whitman killed his wife and mother, then killed 14 more from the University of Texas Tower in Austin, TX, while wounding at least 31. Multiple citizens fired back at Whitman, and an armed citizen accompanied the police to climb the stairs to confront Whitman and stop the killing. Whitman was found to have a brain tumor and was presumed to be insane.
Whitman did not become an icon in the media. Troubled people did not appear to see his mass murder as a way to achieve fame during a public suicide. The copycat effect did not occur until decades later, with vast changes in the American and global media, the Internet, and a significant degradation in public morals.
Rumors are circulating that the mass murderer in Prague murdered his father to obtain the firearm used for most of the killing. In the mass murder at Sandy Hook School in Connecticut, the killer murdered his mother to obtain the weapons used at the school. There is media confirmation the killer’s father was found murdered at home.
It is too early to be certain precisely what firearms were used in the mass murder in Prague. It appears a ZEV 30 was the primary weapon. It has been written the rifle was thrown off the balcony before the killer committed suicide with a shotgun.
A picture of a rifle with a broken stock, broken pistol grip, and broken magazine is suspected of being the scoped rifle used in the mass murder. The picture was posted at reddit.com. It appears to have Czeck words associated with the source. The rifle appears on cobblestones as if it was dropped from a considerable height. The provenance of the image is uncertain.
There is speculation the rifle was a ZEV 30 in 7.62 NATO. It is unknown if the killer had a license for the rifle or killed his father, who owned the rifle, in order to obtain it from his father’s safe.
The Czech police are expected to do a professional job of investigating these murders. It will take a while to accomplish. The Czech Republic has very strict laws about possessing and carrying firearms, although they are some less restrictive in Europe.
Mass public murders occur all over the world. On a per capita basis, the United States is in the middle of the pack, according to crime with firearms expert John Lott.
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About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
No, no one thought about being famous after Whitman. They weren’t all hyped up on mood altering drugs and no one was telling them to change (falsely) their sex to be happy.
OH, so with restrictive laws, worse than some places in America, he stole a gun and committed murders. Notice it didn’t say he took his gun that he bought after getting his shooting proficiency certificate and paying the fees, then his gun purchasing authorization after passing a background check and paying the fees and then waited 10 or more days to legally get his gun. Too bad the guy had a brain tumor. Would have been much better to have him hospitalized and be working on fixing the problem rather than doing nothing about it. I wonder if they have… Read more »
Dean, did you write that lead-in? How does someone kill “about” 14 people? Isn’t that like someone saying “almost pregnant”? Either someone is dead, or they’re not my friend. If the exact number given by the authorities is an approximation, write that, along with a clarification that the exact total will be provided at a later date.
Glad to see that the nutcase wasn’t glorified by showcasing his name and likeness all over the place. U.S. journalists could learn something.
Since SSRI Medication is so available the world over and since every major mass shooter since the 1990’s were on them, I would seriously consider that even though it is a very small amount of them that react this way, that most likely this guy was on them. Even if 10,000,000 people take them and only .001% react in some off the wall way, that means that 100 people are out there creating mayhem due to the drugs. TRUE Paxil story….Sixty year old Donald Schell suffered from an episode of depression but had never before been violent or suicidal. After taking… Read more »
The difference between the Whitman shooting in 1966 and those today is chemical. Specifically, SSRIs used for depression. Suicide and homicide ideation is a known side effect of these medications. I had to take one for situational depression, and I must say, it worked splendidly. I did not have any urge to kill anyone, certainly not myself, but then I was not already having those urges. I think these drugs give people who are already bent the ability to carry these killings out. These drugs should require much more investigation before they are used clinically.