There has been many explanations put forth for this tragic episode. As expected, the usual suspects, the internet and Finland's lax gun laws have been pointed to first. Saari was very active on the internet, where he showed a very keen interest in guns. And unlike from his normal contact with other people, he also showed his darker sides on the net. On example of this is the video clips he put out on YouTube shortly before the shootings. Partly due to Finland's hunting traditions, obtaining a gun is very easy in Finland. Hege Ulstein of Dagsavisen has also pointed to Finland's school system as one of the culprits. Finland has received much praise for its high results in international surveys and tests, such as the PISA-tests. Her argument is that because Finland does not prioritize social skills training as much as Norway, Finland would be more prone to such tragedies. This is a highly speculative argument in my mind.
It is true that the Norwegian syllabus contains a very high emphasis on social skills, which is very good. Whether it succeeds to reach the goals could be discussed, but the emphasis is nevertheless important. To argue that because we put focus on social skills that we are immune to such tragedies is highly dubious. We only need to think back a couple of months to find an incident that could have turned really nasty, when a barrister fired a gun into a reception center for asylum seekers and seriously injured a 16 years old Somalian. Fortunately, we have been spared of tragedies of the scope of the Kauhajoki massacre (knock on wood). But to hold that we for various reasons are somehow immune to that would be to fool ourselves.
