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About LinkBacksBreaking in the UK now, lone gunman believed armed with a shotgun has killed 5 people, 25 wounded.
This is in Cumbria in the north of England...
Body of gunman has been found
Tint Bob (UK)
This is a discussion on Bad Shooting in UK 12 Dead within the In the News: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly forums, part of the The Back Porch category; Breaking in the UK now, lone gunman believed armed with a shotgun has killed 5 people, 25 wounded. This is in Cumbria in the north ...
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Breaking in the UK now, lone gunman believed armed with a shotgun has killed 5 people, 25 wounded.
This is in Cumbria in the north of England...
Body of gunman has been found
Tint Bob (UK)
Last edited by Tint Bob; June 2nd, 2010 at 05:24 PM.
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What are the laws on owning shotguns in the UK?
Will there be a knee-jerk political/legal reaction based on this one incident?
From the BBC:
More here: BBC News - Cumbria shooting rampage suspect's 'body found'Gunman kills several in Cumbria rampage
At least five people have been killed and several others injured after a gunman opened fire in west Cumbria.
Police say a body, believed to be that of suspect Derrick Bird, has been found in the Boot area of the Lake District.
The first reported fatal shooting was in Whitehaven at 1035 BST, after which the gunman fled east.
A GP in the town of Seascale said he and a colleague had later certified two other people dead.
Dr Barrie Walker said: "The surgery was called and I went out. I've certified one of them dead. My colleague saw another," he said.
"At present there are two people dead and one seriously injured in Seascale. I know one of the victims. She was in the street.
"The second person was on a bicycle and was shot on the bike."
BBC Look North Chief Reporter Chris Stewart said a farmer is also believed to have been killed in the Gosforth area.
Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Hyde said he believed Derrick Bird's body had been found
A major incident has been declared at West Cumberland Hospital, in Whitehaven, where the NHS said all routine operations had been cancelled.
The Accident and Emergency department at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle is also on full incident stand-by, the hospital trust said.
This looks like an initial report and they are still sorting things out.
When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.
"Don't forget, incoming fire has the right of way."
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Of course the reaction to this will be to take the few shotguns still in private hands. Of course none of the victims could defend themselves because gun control works....for the criminals and psychos.
"First gallant South Carolina nobly made the stand."
Edge of Darkness
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Impossible. Guns are outlawed in the UK.Originally Posted by Tint Bob
<sarcasm>
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Damn evil shotguns taking over people's souls and making them shoot people...
NRA Life Member
With great power comes great responsibility.-Stan Lee
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This is bloody horrible!
Driving around in his cab shooting at everyone with a shotty?!? In Great Britian?!!!?
Wonder what triggered this terrible behavior?
This'll end up making things worse for those 'subjects' across 'the pond'.
"Just getting a concealed carry permit means you haven't commited a crime yet. CCP holders commit crimes." Daniel Vice, senior attorney for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, quoted on Fox & Friends, 8 Jul, 2008
(Sometimes) "a fight avioded is a fight won." ... claude clay
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Reminds me of For Queen and Country with Denzel Washington, not saying that the taxi driver had the same incentive but...
“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” Albert Pike
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Sky News reporting 12 dead...
No news on whether the shotgun was held legally (Yes we can own shotguns)
I think the comment on a political reaction will be spot on!
Tint Bob
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Some hoops and jumps to go thru (bit like a Class III in the US) but you can own as many shotguns as you want once you have a certificate
Won't be long........before some idiots over there will start calling for a TOTAL ban on shotguns. Probably before days end........
Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est.-Seneca
"If you carry a gun, people will call you paranoid. If I have a gun, what do I have to be paranoid about?" -Clint Smith
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." -Jeff Cooper
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There should be a ban on idiots, at home and abroad.
One should never confuse good fortune with good training.
Illegitimus Non Carborundum.
In God we trust.
AP News | Richmond Times-Dispatch
UK taxi driver kills 12, wounds 25 in England
By SCOTT HEPPELL and JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press Writer
SEASCALE, England (AP) -- A taxi driver drove his vehicle on a shooting spree across a tranquil stretch of northwest England on Wednesday, methodically killing 12 people and wounding 25 others before turning the gun on himself, officials said.
The rampage in the county of Cumbria was Britain's deadliest mass shooting since 1996 and it jolted a country where handguns are banned and multiple shootings rare.
The body of the suspected gunman, 52-year-old Derrick Bird, was found in woods near Boot, a hamlet popular with hikers and vacationers in England's hilly, scenic Lake District. Police said two weapons were recovered from the scene.
Three of the wounded were in critical condition in a hospital. The shootings had "shocked the people of Cumbria and around the country to the core," Police Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Hyde said.
Police said it was too early to say what the killer's motive was, or whether the shootings had been random. Some reports said Bird had quarreled with fellow cab drivers the night before the killings.
Peter Leder, a taxi driver who knew Bird, said he had seen the gunman Tuesday and didn't notice anything that was obviously amiss. But he was struck by Bird's departing words.
"When he left he said, 'See you Peter, but I won't see you again,'" Leder told Channel 4 News.
The first shootings were reported in the coastal town of Whitehaven, about 350 miles (560 kilometers) northwest of London. Witnesses said the dead there included two of Bird's fellow cabbies.
Police warned residents to stay indoors as they tracked the gunman's progress across the county. Witnesses described seeing the gunman driving around shooting from the window of his car.
Victims died in Seascale and Egremont, near Whitehaven, and in Gosforth, where a farmer's son was shot dead in a field. Workers at the nearby Sellafield nuclear processing plant were ordered to stay inside while the gunman was on the loose.
Hyde said there were 30 separate crime scenes. Many bodies remained on the ground late Wednesday, covered with sheets, awaiting the region's small and overstretched force of forensic officers.
Barrie Walker, a doctor in Seascale who certified one of the deaths, told the BBC that victims had been shot in the face, apparently with a shotgun.
Lyn Edwards, 59, a youth worker in Seascale, said she saw a man who had been shot in his car.
"I could see a man screaming and I could see blood and there were two ladies helping him at the time," she said.
Deadly shootings are rare in Britain, where gun ownership is tightly restricted. In recent years, there have been fewer than 100 gun murders annually across the country.
Rules on gun ownership were tightened after two massacres in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1987, gun enthusiast Michael Ryan killed 16 people in the English town of Hungerford. In 1996, Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and a teacher at a primary school in Dunblane, Scotland.
About 600,000 people in Britain legally own a shotgun, most of them farmers and hunters in rural areas. Witnesses described Bird as using a shotgun or a rifle.
Prime Minister David Cameron said the government would do everything it could to help the affected region.
"When lives and communities are suddenly shattered in this way, our thoughts should be with all those caught up in these tragic events, especially the families and friends of those killed or injured," he told lawmakers in the House of Commons.
Local lawmaker Jamie Reed said people in the quiet area were in shock.
"This kind of thing doesn't happen in our part of the world," he told the BBC. "We have got one of the lowest, if not the lowest, crime rates in the country."
Glenda Pears, who runs L&G Taxis in Whitehaven, said one of the victims was another taxi driver who was a friend of Bird's.
"They used to stand together having a (laugh) on the rank," she said. "He was friends with everybody and used to stand and joke on Duke Street."
Sue Matthews, who works at A2B Taxis in Whitehaven, said Bird was self-employed, quiet and lived alone.
"I would say he was fairly popular. I would see him once a week out and about. He was known as 'Birdy,'" she said. "I can't believe he would do that - he was a quiet little fellow."
Emergency services were still working late Wednesday to identify all the dead and inform their families.
Rod Davies, landlord of Gosforth Hall Inn near one of the crime scenes, said residents were "used to 'neighbor's cat missing' stories making the news - not this sort of thing.
"There's a lot of fear. A lot of people are expecting to hear names of people they know."
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I'm just one root in a grassroots organization. No one should assume that I speak for the VCDL.
I am neither an attorney-at-law nor I do play one on television or on the internet. No one should assumes my opinion is legal advice.
Veni, Vidi, Velcro
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His first hame will probably be Adolf!
Hiram25
You can educate ignorance, you can't fix stupid
Retired DE Trooper, SA XD40 SC, S&W 2" Airweight
dukalmighty & Pure Kustom Black Ops Pro "Trooper" Holsters, DE CCDW and LEOSA Permits, Vietnam Vet 68-69 Pleiku
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We now have Sky News giving a run down on UK gun laws....
Still no news if he legally owned his firearms, sounds like 2 weapons, a shotgun and a rifle.....Police are staying very quiet on what types they are.
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