Killer on the rampage across Cumbria

A friend of mine is just a couple of miles from Boot, she was on her way to Whitehaven and was turned back, and told to stay indoors and away from the windows.

Scary stuff.
 
uk_dave said:
NWO and Apple, judging by Agatha's post.
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Ha, took me a moment to get that :)

A nasty business though. Does anyone know what sort of gun the guy was using? Can we expect a further crack-down on legally held firearms?
 
.. and apparently the weapon was a shotgun. 12 dead, dave? Wow. Judging from the accounts it sounds like - apart from the initial killings - they were random victims too. And because of the spread-out and rural nature of this spree, the emergency services are still looking for more victims. Terrible.
 
After the first shooting, witnesses said Mr Bird drove through Whitehaven with a gun hanging out of his car window, then headed south through Gosforth and Seascale before turning inland.

As well as Whitehaven, fatalities have been confirmed in Egremont, Seascale and Gosforth.

The mass shooting is England's worst since 1987, when gun fanatic Michael Ryan killed 16 people in Hungerford, Berkshire.

...........................

After the killings, detectives said 52-year-old Mr Bird drove to the central Lakes in a Citroen Picasso, then abandoned it in the Boot area.

Before his body was discovered, people living nearby were urged to stay indoors for their own protection.

Helicopters and armed officers from other police forces were brought in to help apprehend the gunman.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/10219655.stm
 
richardm said:
.. and apparently the weapon was a shotgun.
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That certainly fits what the doctor I heard on the radio said who found some of the victims. Another witness described some sort of sniper rifle, though, and it was reported he had two guns.
 
zooterkin said:
That certainly fits what the doctor I heard on the radio said who found some of the victims. Another witness described some sort of sniper rifle, though, and it was reported he had two guns.
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I thought guns were mostly illegal, and very tightly controlled over there?
 
rwguinn said:
I thought guns were mostly illegal, and very tightly controlled over there?
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You can have a .22 for target shooting, but I believe it has to stay locked away at all other times.

Farmers and such may have a license for a shotgun, because they use them to control pests.

So when you hear of a shooting in Britain, odds are it was a stolen shotgun or a pistol brought in illegally via France.


PS - My wife linked me to this story, because her first time in Britain we stayed in a cottage about 18 miles from this incident. This area is so quiet and rural that the bit we were in had no taxis, and a once a day bus service. We literally had to walk several miles to do our shopping.

It's like hearing of a killing spree in Amish country.
 
rwguinn said:
I thought guns were mostly illegal, and very tightly controlled over there?
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Indeed, that may be partly why we have only had a handful of such incidents. Shotguns are legal, and the least regulated of firearms. Handguns are just about completely illegal now, though it's possible to get hold of illegal one, but they were not common before that.
 
Actually, it's surprising how many guns there are, for sporting use. Either that or the millions of pheasants bred annually, plus the grouse on the moors and the stags and various other wildlife, all committed suicide. And all those "clay pigeons" people blast off at (even people on birthday-party-type treats) blew up on their own.

The guns are indeed very tightly controlled, though. No doubt there will be a detailed investigation as to what he used and where he got it. TV news is saying the guns seem to have been legal, though that's preliminary. They are already talking about further tightening of gun laws, though it may be they're as tight as they reasonably can be and the occasional "escape" is inevitable. Britain usually does quite well in Olympic shooting events, and they don't want to stop that completely. (Maybe they should get snooker declared an Olympic sport instead....)

It's 14 years since the last incident, and 23 since the one before that.

Rolfe.
 
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Rolfe said:
Actually, it's surprising how many guns there are, for sporting use. Either that or the millions of pheasants bred annually, plus the grouse on the moors and the stags and various other wildlife, all committed suicide. And all those "clay pigeons" people blast off at (even people on birthday-party-type treats) blew up on their own.

The guns are indeed very tightly controlled, though. No doubt there will be a detailed investigation as to what he used and where he got it. TV news is saying the guns seem to have been legal, though that's preliminary. They are already talking about further tightening of gun laws, though it may be they're as tight as they reasonably can be and the occasional "escape" is inevitable. Britain usually does quite well in Olympic shooting events, and they don't want to stop that completely. (Maybe they should get snooker declared an Olympic sport instead....)

It's 14 years since the last incident, and 23 since the one before that.

Rolfe.
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Yeah well, British politicians still are very fond of the notion that will enough legislation you can protect the citizens from themselves.

Wait for a spoon attack, I hope you don't mind using your fingers :p
 
You know, we had at least one machete attack. No deaths.

If that's intended as a gybe about ordinary people here not going around armed to the teeth, I think a debate about how likely it might have been that armed passers-by could have done anything but make things worse is for another thread. Personally, I'll worry about that when our shooting incidents are more frequent than about every ten years.

Rolfe.
 
Rolfe said:
You know, we had at least one machete attack. No deaths.

If that's intended as a gybe about ordinary people here not going around armed to the teeth, I think a debate about how likely it might have been that armed passers-by could have done anything but make things worse is for another thread. Personally, I'll worry about that when our shooting incidents are more frequent than about every ten years.

Rolfe.
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When I saw it was a shotgun, and the amount of casualties, my first thought was "while he was reloading, why didn't some guy run up and beat the crap out of him?"

But it seems he was driving around as he was shooting people, hard to stop unless you're Arnie and can punch through windshields.
 
TV now saying that guns are quite common in the village where Bird lived, because shooting was a popular sport. Bird had a clean record and held guns legally. (They just said there are about 1.3 million shotguns in the country, but I don't know which country - England or Britain.)

He seems to have undergone a marked personality change in the past few days. Something seems to have happened. Rumours about an argument about a will. It may be something snapped in an apparently normal guy, who just happened to be one of the small minority who have legal guns.

Rolfe.
 
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