# Five dead in Norway bow and arrow attack
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 14, 2021, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467 "2021-10-14T08:38:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/1 "2021-10-14T08:38:34Z")
No idea of motive or anything yet, but that headline certainly grabbed my attention.
> **[Kongsberg: Five dead in Norway bow and arrow attack](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58906165)**
>
> Police say a man armed with a bow and arrows killed four women and a man in the town of Kongsberg.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/2 "2021-10-14T09:28:39Z")
I saw the reports this morning on BBC World News. The anchor announced that five people had been killed in a bow and arrow attack in Norway, and then went on to reassure us that experts said that “this sort of attack is exceedingly rare”. You don’t think? 🙄
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### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/3 "2021-10-14T12:22:36Z")
Tragic and horrible. Sounds like a Jo Nesbo storyline, who I’m coincidentally reading at this very moment.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/4 "2021-10-14T12:32:03Z")
Right now it’s looking like a terror attack, as opposed to just running amok.
> **[Suspect in Norway attack named as police say they're treating it as terrorism...](https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/14/europe/norway-kongsberg-attack-intl/index.html)**
>
> The suspect in the Norway bow-and-arrow attack was a convert to Islam and police had been in contact with him before the killings on Wednesday over concerns about radicalization, police chief Ole Bredrup Sæverud said Thursday.
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/5 "2021-10-14T14:37:26Z")
Just had to mention that you don’t often see the weapon and its projectile always mentioned together. A shooting isn’t a “gun and bullet attack”.
And yet it’s always “bow and arrow”. My first reaction was “Well, you have to say ‘arrow’, because the bow by itself is useless.”
But so is an empty gun.
Oh, great, now I’m picturing news anchors gravely informing the public about “A four-hour shotgun-and-shell standoff”; “A tragic car-and-driver crash”; “A terrorist grenade launcher-and-grenades attack”; “A dangerous slingshot-and-rock incident…”; “A deadly trebuchet-and-bigger-rock incident…”
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/6 "2021-10-14T15:45:29Z")
I would conjecture that that is because bow is a short word with many meanings and at least two pronunciations. You certainly could imagine someone talking about a crossbow or even long bow attack.
Enough for the hijack. If he could get off that many arrows (I believe there were several more people injured) imagine what he could have done with an AK-47.
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### Author:  [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/7 "2021-10-14T16:28:51Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> If he could get off that many arrows (I believe there were several more people injured) imagine what he could have done with an AK-47.
The NRA would like you very much not to imagine that. Quite the opposite in fact.
>
Click for accompanying “meme” that doesn’t show in my preview at least.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/8 "2021-10-14T16:48:54Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> Enough for the hijack. If he could get off that many arrows (I believe there were several more people injured) imagine what he could have done with an AK-47 -
AKs don’t launch arrows.
:deadpan:
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/9 "2021-10-14T17:34:06Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> AKs don’t launch arrows.
But a shotgun can fire [flechettes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flechette#Shotguns) (small arrows).
#technicallytrue
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/10 "2021-10-14T17:56:18Z")
For some reason, the idea of being shot-impaled by an arrow squicks me out far more than the prospect of being shot by a bullet, even though from a trauma standpoint both are pretty similar and severe wounds. Not sure why.
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### Author:  [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/11 "2021-10-14T18:01:04Z")
Speak for yourself.
😉
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### Author:  [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/12 "2021-10-14T18:14:33Z")
> [@digs](#):
>
> Just had to mention that you don’t often see the weapon and its projectile always mentioned together. A shooting isn’t a “gun and bullet attack”.
>
> And yet it’s always “bow and arrow”. My first reaction was “Well, you have to say ‘arrow’, because the bow by itself is useless.”
> But so is an empty gun
>
> Oh, great, now I’m picturing news anchors gravely informing the public about “A four-hour shotgun-and-shell standoff”; “A tragic car-and-driver crash”; “A terrorist grenade launcher-and-grenades attack”; “A dangerous slingshot-and-rock incident…”; “A deadly trebuchet-and-bigger-rock incident…”
The timeline in the CNN article mentioned the suspect firing arrows at the police. Because that’s how my monkey mind works, my first thought was, “Arrows aren’t ‘fired’.”
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### Author:  [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/13 "2021-10-14T18:17:08Z")
What is strange to me as a former bow hunter is that I expected, due to all the deaths, that these would be hunting broadheads. They are basically tipped with multiple razor blades and if you are hit most anywhere that you cannot apply a tourniquet to, you are going to bleed out and die within 20 minutes or so. And they will slice right through a body.
But I read on another site that bow hunting is not legal in Norway and then I saw pictures of the arrows and they appear to have just target points. Which are bad enough but this many deaths from target arrows seems unlikely. But like many news reports they are not well researched as to the actual equipment used. A semi-automatic gun becomes automatic, etc.
But killing five people with target arrows, well, it would be insensitive of me to say, “nice shooting”, so I won’t say it.
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### Author:  [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/14 "2021-10-14T18:22:45Z")
> [@Velocity](#):
>
> Not sure why.
I’m the same way. For me, it’s because of the thought that “this thing’s going to do as much damage coming out of me as it did going in”, and having that going through your mind while trying to get help, _and_ considering the possibility of more trauma incurred inadvertently while the darn arrow is sticking out of you…
…well, it gets me going like a Cronenberg film.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/15 "2021-10-14T19:26:57Z")
Ah, but see they have to use the phrase to distinguish them from all the gun-and-arrow attacks that happen.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/16 "2021-10-14T19:29:52Z")
Jesus fucking Christ, can you people give it a rest? It was an interesting observation **digs** made, but now you’re all just riding it into the ground. In a thread about murdered people.
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### Author:  [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/17 "2021-10-14T19:37:33Z")
I imagine that if you used just the bow itself you could beat the life out of someone if you were really aggressive about it.
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### Author:  [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/18 "2021-10-14T19:40:46Z")
So, we can’t call it a “Mass Shooting” so, what do we call it, a “Mass Archering”?
Suggestions taken here!
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/19 "2021-10-14T19:42:50Z")
Moderating: this is a thread about a recent mass murder. Please drop the vocabulary-wanking.
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-dead-in-norway-bow-and-arrow-attack/952467/20 "2021-10-14T19:45:11Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#):
>
> But killing five people with target arrows, well, it would be insensitive of me to say, “nice shooting”, so I won’t say it.
Moderating: except you really did. Please don’t be a jerk.
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