Talk:2015 Barcelona school attack

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On 16 April 2026, it was proposed that this article be moved from Barcelona school killing to 2015 Barcelona school attack. The result of the discussion was moved.

Requested move 16 April 2026

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) Jeffrey34555 (talk) 03:29, 23 April 2026 (UTC)

Barcelona school killing → 2015 Barcelona school attack – A lack of other notable attacks at schools in Barcelona does not imply that a year is not necessary, factors such as how identifiable the incident does, and this incident does not appear to reach that level of notoriety. Please note that WP:NCWWW states that most events titles should say when, where, and what happened. Years are not WP:OVERPRECISION (please note that exceptions to the precision criterion are a result of the application of other naming criterion) or only usable for disambiguation (if this were the case, then part of NCWWW would be basically irrelevant, and guidelines and policies should work in harmony, not in opposition to one another). Readers should not be confused if there have been other notable attacks at schools in Barcelona because if there had been, it should be mentioned and linked to in the article, like with the distinguish template.

I've changed "killing" to "attack", as more sources appear to refer to it as a "school attack" rather than a "school killing" per WP:COMMONNAME. Raskuly (🐰) 20:18, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

Support – The reasoning is sound. fifteen thousand two hundred twenty four (talk) 01:19, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

Support per nom. ZionniThePeruser ^{( talk with me | read up on me )} 06:00, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

Support per nom. -- Necrothesp (talk) 11:06, 20 April 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

"School shooting" and Columbine connection

First, yes, you shoot a crossbow–but sources don't appear to use the terminology of "school shooting" and most readers when reading "school shooting" would anticipate firearms to be involved. As such, referring to it as a "school shooting" and including it in school shooting categories, or in Template:School shootings outside of the United States appears inappropriate. The article also asserts that it was a "Columbine High School massacre copycat crime", but there do not appear to be sources in the article which support that. It was noted that it happened on the same date of the Columbine attack, but the only sourced connection made to Columbine in the article appears to be about a planned attack that was foiled in 2012 at the University of the Balearic Islands. Raskuly (🐰) 20:25, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

The article doesn't assert that this instance was a copycat crime, that statement is being applied to a previous, unsuccessful planned school attack ... in 2012. fifteen thousand two hundred twenty four (talk) 01:18, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

It is in Category:Columbine High School massacre copycat crimes, and the date in relation to Columbine is emphasized in the ~~Background~~ and Attack sections. Raskuly (🐰) 01:49, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

I missed that cat and agree that it shouldn't be in it. The Attack section mention seems to be because a RS also pointed out a connection between the date and Columbine, so a brief mention may be due, but the second half of the statement ... which has inspired multiple murderous plots and attacks on school grounds may confuse readers.

As for the shooting cat, it does seem likely that most readers would assume that a school shooting refers to one using firearms (our School shooting article certainly does).

I've removed the copycat cat, shooting template+cat and the latter half of the attack section statement in Special:Diff/1349396694. fifteen thousand two hundred twenty four (talk) 03:53, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

I've gone and altered the infobox regarding the attack type and the wording regarding Columbine in the attack section as well. Part of the reason I brought it up here rather than removing it myself is because I received push back regarding the "school shooting" categorization at Template talk:School shootings outside of the United States#Barcelona school killing, but they have been notified of the discussion here. Raskuly (🐰) 04:03, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

I don't see any real reason why this shouldn't be called a school shooting. Regarding the RS thing, articles such as the Trollhättan school stabbing are called that despite almost all sources calling it the Trollhättan school attack. And I also don't really understand why the readers "would anticipate firearms to be involved". AFeatherlessBipehead (talk) 12:16, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

Also none of the sources of this article says anyone was stabbed, yet the article is in categories for "school stabbings" AFeatherlessBipehead (talk) 12:18, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

I don't see any real reason why this shouldn't be called a school shooting. I don't see any reason why it should be. Moving on, as far as I'm aware there isn't a category for slashings, as is discussed in the article and sources, so stabbings is the best category. If you believe that the Trollhättan school stabbing article is incorrectly named per WP:COMMONNAME, you can open an RM for it, but I don't see what relevance it has exactly to this article. Can you explain? And I also don't really understand why the readers "would anticipate firearms to be involved". When you read the words "school shooting" do you anticipate a firearm to be involved? I believe the vast majority of people would–and I could not find sources which refer to this as a "school shooting" either. A crossbow is a completely different type of weapon from a firearm. Raskuly (🐰) 17:38, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

My point is that a crossbow attack should be called a shooting since it is quite obviously implied. Also this might be a language thing, it could be that in Spanish they often just use "school attack" rather than "school shooting" or "school stabbing" (I think that is what's going on with the Trollhättan article) AFeatherlessBipehead (talk) 18:22, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

I don't see why a crossbow attack can't just be called a crossbow attack and not a shooting. I did mention on the template talk page that I might be missing Spanish sources which call it a "school shooting" or a "tiroteo escolar". It should also be noted that the school shooting article is specifically about firearm attacks, and I believe you would need to find consensus to change that wording to extend it to non-firearm weapons that also shoot deadly projectiles on that article before you could assert that it should be linked to here, but even then you would need reliable sources which describe this incident as a school shooting. Raskuly (🐰) 18:31, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

It seems unnecessary to call it a "crossbow attack" instead of just "shooting". The article for the Kongsberg attack is in the category of "2021 mass shootings in Europe" and not "2021 bow attacks in Europe".

It also doesn't make sense to have this article in the categories for stabbings when no sources label it that. AFeatherlessBipehead (talk) 14:40, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

Why is it unnecessary to call it what it is? Are you disputing that a crossbow was used to attack someone in the incident? And pointing out another article improperly categorized doesn't help your argument—such a bow category does not exist. Are you also disputing that a bladed weapon was used to attack someone since I already explained why it's categorized that way? Raskuly (🐰) 15:15, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

It's overly complicated, if a gun was used would you call it the "barcelona gun attack"? And your explanation didn't make much sense, why should we incorrectly categorize this as a stabbing when it likely wasn't? AFeatherlessBipehead (talk) 15:20, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

I fail to see how "crossbow attack" is "overly complicated" for readers. I made sourced changes to the article to hopefully alleviate concerns regarding the stabbing categorization. Raskuly (🐰) 18:28, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

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