In China, guns are not easy to get hold of. Imagine the carnage if the guy took an automatic rife into the school. In the US, handguns are abundant with one statistic numbering 250 million guns in 50 million households. With the school shootings in the US there were a lot more fatalities.

Beijing, China (CNN) -- A court in eastern China sentenced a man to death Saturday for attacking 29 kindergarten students and three teachers with a knife, state-run media said.

The Taixing Intermediate People's Court found Xu Yuyuan, 47, guilty of intentional homicide after a half-day trial, Xinhua news agency said.

Xu told the court that his rage against society motivated him in the April 29 attacks, according to Xinhua. But he appealed the death sentence, arguing that the punishment was too severe since no one died in the attacks, Xinhua said.

Chinese penal code says a person can be convicted of intentional homicide for acting on an intent to kill, the news agency reported.

A police probe found Xu had been unemployed since 2001, when he was fired by a local insurance company. He told police he carried out the attack because he was angry about a series of business and personal humiliations, Xinhua said.

About 300 people attended Saturday's open trial, according to Xinhua.

Xu's sentence was the second death penalty conviction after a recent spate of school attacks that have prompted public outrage across China.

Zheng Minsheng, 42, was sentenced to death and executed on April 28 for attacking students in front of an elementary school in Fujian province, killing eight and wounding several others. Zheng also used a knife in the attacks, Xinhua reported.

Authorities said Zheng carried out the attack because he was frustrated at "failures in his romantic life," the news agency said.

At least four other such attacks on school children in China have been reported since March.

Guns are strictly regulated in China, but until recently large knives were not. Chinese authorities have recently issued a regulation requiring people to register with their national ID cards when they buy knives longer that 15 centimeters.

Other measures have been put in place.

In April, the Ministry of Education ordered kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools to restrict strangers from entering the campuses. The ministry instructed schools across the country to hire security guards, install security facilities and ensure that pupils were escorted home. Schools were also urged to teach pupils to how to protect themselves.

In some schools, security guards have been armed with "forks," long poles with semi-circular prongs that can be used to fight assailants.

I thought I'd put this in here to show a continuing pattern rather than start a new thread.

Woman stabs nine in China train rampage
June 2, 2010 - 3:01PM
               
A woman armed with a knife went on the rampage on an overnight passenger train in northeastern China, stabbing and wounding nine people as they slept, state media reported.
The attack, which occurred in the early morning yesterday on a train in Heilongjiang province, is the latest in a wave of violent attacks by lone assailants that has shocked the country.
The woman, who was not identified, went from berth to berth stabbing sleeping passengers until she was wrestled to the ground and restrained by other travellers, said Dongbei today, a news website covering China's north-east.

The woman was estimated by witnesses to be about 40 years old, but no other details about her were provided.
The train had been travelling from the provincial capital of Harbin to the city of Hebei. The victims received treatment when the train stopped in the city of Jiamusi, but the report did not say how serious their injuries were.
The attack occurred the same day that a bank guard opened fire in a court building in central China's Hunan province, shooting three judges dead and wounding three other people before killing himself, the local government said.
Zhu Jun, 46, had reportedly been angered by another court's ruling on a division of assets in his divorce three years ago.
China also has seen a spate of bloody attacks on young schoolchildren around the country since March that have left 17 people dead, including 15 pupils, and scores injured.
The attacks have triggered an intense debate about the reasons behind them, with some experts saying China had not attached enough importance to mental health amid rapid social change triggered by decades of booming economic growth.