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- WORLD, Page 33World NotesFRANCEA "Mountain Of Sorrow"
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- While the easy availability of firearms in the U.S. has helped
- produce an epidemic of violent deaths, the affliction is not
- uniquely American. Last week in the French village of Luxiol, near
- the Swiss border, a farmer with a history of mental illness managed
- to obtain a hunting gun and went on a shooting spree that lasted
- 30 minutes. When the rampage was over, Christian Dornier, 31, had
- murdered 14 people, including his mother and sister, and wounded
- his father and eight others.
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- Townsfolk speculated that the killer had become deranged
- because of business problems and opposition to his sister's recent
- marriage. After shooting his relatives, Dornier drove through
- Luxiol (pop. 128) and neighboring communities, picking off people
- along the way. One villager shot Dornier in the neck with a rifle,
- but that did not stop him. Eventually captured by police, Dornier
- was taken to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment. On Friday
- he was transferred to a prison hospital near Paris, where he was
- reported in stable condition. Said Luxiol Mayor Roger Clausse,
- whose five-year-old niece was among the dead: "It's appalling, the
- mountain of sorrow that he has caused."