A question without an answer !

This weekend  thirty-two year old Norwegian Anders Behring  Breivik declared war on his world.  He exploded two powerful bombs in the centre of Oslo, killing seven people and injuring many more.  The damage to mainly government buildings will run into millions of dollars, but that was the minor part of his plan to impose carnage on the civil population.

Hours later, Breivik travelled thirty kilometres from Oslo to Vtoeya island where the Norwegian Labor party was holding a youth camp.  He was wearing a police uniform - including a bullet proof vest - and armed with an assortment of automatic weapons.   Calmly and methodically he walked through the camp shooting young people.  He unzipped tents and dispassionately murdered those inside and when survivors swam away from the island he systematically shot those in the water.  He killed over eighty people - men and women - before security police intervened and captured him.   Deaths from the bombs and shooting amounted to over a hundred people.

Breivik is said to be a " Christian fundamentalist " with a history of posting anti Muslim rants on the net.  At this stage he has given no reason for his murderous rampage, but many Australians will compare it with that of Martin Bryant, who shot to death thirty-five people at Port Arthur in Tasmania in 1996.

There was never a conclusive reason given for Bryant's murder spree.  All the usual reasons attributed to murder were missing.  Bryant was not poor and underprivileged.  In fact, he had inherited a fortune, travelled widely and lived the good life.

He was not lonely.  He had a live-in girl friend and held no discernible political or religious views.  He will remain in Risdon prison until he dies - and it seems that there will never be a reason given to explain his rampage.

What is chilling about the Breivik murder spree is that it gave no prior warning that such a plan was hatching in his mind.  He managed to collect both data and material to construct sophisticated bombs, and at the time of his attack on Vtoeya island he was dressed in a police uniform.  It seems that he was also a registered gun owner - and obviously it was his intention to deliver mass murder of the type associated with the Oklahoma city bombing carried out by Timothy McVeigh.

If that can happen in politically stable Norway - and in a rustic state like Tasmania - then no place on the planet is safe from a mind intent on mass murder.    The best brains will try to determine why Breivik did what he did - but it is unlikely that we will ever learn a satisfactory answer.

It seems to be only a matter of time before - somewhere else in this world - a mental aberration send another mind over the edge - and produces mass murder without reason !