A Mass Shooting Is Always Political
- Leonidas Aretakis
The February 4 school shooting in Örebro was the deadliest such attack in Swedish history. The killer didn’t leave a manifesto, and officials are reluctant to call this a “terrorist” attack. But this shooting was not apolitical.
People light candles at a vigil near the adult education center Campus Risbergska school in Örebro, Sweden, on February 5, 2025(Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP via Getty Images)
The two heavily armed brothers were dressed like a masked tactical unit. They broke into the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo at noon on January 7, 2015, and opened fire at the editorial staff meeting. As they fled, the Salafist brothers also shot at the police who arrived at the scene. Among the twelve dead were five cartoonists and two police officers.
Ten years ago, we were “all Charlie.” And we didn’t hesitate to call it terrorism.
Terror is a carefully staged act of brutal violence designed to create maximum fear and shock. It is the weapon of the weak against an overwhelming enemy, as author Yuval Noah Harari noted in the Guardian after that massacre.
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