What If Massacres Happened with a Knife?

What if massacres (or attempted massacres in this case) happened with a knife? What would happen?

Sixteen-year-old Alex Hribal attempted to kill 20 of his fellow students and a security guard at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, near Pittsburgh, PA. He is now accused of 21 counts of assault and attempted murder. At the trial he will be charged as an adult, as stated by the law of Pennsylvania.

The scene of panic that the police and the emergency services witnessed at the school in Murrysville was the same as those at Columbine and Virginia Tech: students running away, shouting, blood, the few brave souls who helped the emergency services and organized the initial emergency measures to restore order themselves. The main difference is the weapon: two knives. No guns, rifles or machines guns were used. The killer had two long white weapons. It is still not known where he got them, but they are as dangerous as the kitchen knives found in every kitchen in America (and even in Italy).

The dynamics of the event remind us of all the previous massacres in schools. Alex Hribal was the same unsuspecting person, described by his classmates as a shy and introverted person, who was disciplined and not violent. At 7:15 a.m., those five minutes began and he started to attack his classmates at the school entrance. He attacked them in the halls, then in the classrooms, moving in silence from one room to another. According to witnesses, in the beginning nobody noticed what he was doing. Then, the screams from a girl signaled the alarm and one of the students started the fire alarm to make his classmates run away and call the emergency services.

In the end, an armed security guard was able to block the attacker and handcuff him. Contrary to other massacres, nobody died in this case, but several were injured, some seriously. But this does not demonstrate the minor fatalities of an attack caused by a knife rather than a firearm. It demonstrates only the luck of many of the children, who were attacked but survived. You only need to consider one survivor’s tale: according to a medical report, a 17-year-old avoided death even though he was stabbed in the liver, his diaphragm was damaged and the knife came very close to a main artery. It is a miracle he is alive. A bullet could hardly have been worse.

The attempted massacre by Alex Hribal, just like others in the past, has an inscrutable origin. Only an analysis of the attacker could determine what pushed him to try to murder his classmates. But it remains a strong warning on future legislation of firearms in the U.S. Hribal acted undisturbed against his unarmed classmates and in the end, only an armed security guard was able to stop him. When the National Rifle Association, the “evil lobby of weapons,” asks for armed security guards in all schools, they have a point. Massacres happen when the place of the crime is full of defenseless people. Even the latest attack at Fort Hood was against people who were military men, but were disarmed, and also in their own base. Only an armed man can stop another armed man, especially if the defender has a more powerful weapon than the attacker. It is a brutal realization, but it is a fact.

The second conclusion that can be drawn is the uselessness of the firearms bill. President Barack Obama wants to approve this with or without the consent of Congress, which he tried to clarify in January. It is a law that forbids the possession of certain assault weapons – in other words, machine guns – limits on the amount of bullets sold, and more checks, including psychological checks, on those who possess firearms. The weapons in question, assault weapons, are those that make the biggest impression.

But they also, according to statistics from the FBI, cause fewer deaths. According to data from 2011 (the latest report), weapons of all types, both assault and non-assault, caused 323 deaths.* In comparison, deaths caused by knives (the weapon used by Alex Hribal) are much higher: 1,694. So why must they ban guns? Maybe because knives cannot be banned. But also because it is difficult to admit that it isn’t the weapon that causes the deaths, but the criminal’s intentions.

*Editor’s note: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of deaths caused by firearms in 2011 was 31,672.