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The U.S. may have a particularly bad problem with mass shootings, but it’s hardly the only country struggling to prevent them. On Tuesday, Russia experienced one of the deadliest shootings in the last three years. Authorities say a 19-year-old gunman opened fire in a school in Kazan, a city about 450 miles east of Moscow, killing nine people, including seven eighth-graders, and wounding over 20 individuals.
The attack was very similar to American school shootings. Police allege that the gunman, whom they identified as Ilnaz Galyaviev, was a former student at the school. The Associated Press reports that several days before the incident, Galyaviev created a channel on the Telegram messaging app where he called himself “a god” and stated that he wanted others to be his slaves. On the day of the shooting, the AP reported, he warned that he would kill a large amount of “bio-waste.” It’s reminiscent of the Columbine shooting in 1999; one of the killers, Eric Harris, wrote in his diary: “I feel like God and I wish I was, having everyone being officially lower than me.”