http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/10214661.stm

man shot in whitehaven town centra and a farmer shot in a field at point blank near gosforth confirmed so far. RIP

Wonder what set him off to do this.

Probably found out that Rowell had been released and that heartless Hartlepool United had cancelled their friendly with Gateshead and just flipped

On a serious note, R.I.P to those unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

From www.POK.co.uk

They say they now believe they have found his body in woodland.

There are believed to have been a number of fatalities, but details are emerging all the time.

Police say they have seized a gun from the scene where Derrick Bird's body is believed to have been discovered. They say they are now working to confirm the number of people injured or dead.

5 confirmed dead up to now.

People who knew the gunman say he was just a normal bloke so it looks like something has tipped him over the edge.

I still remember Hungerford which sounds similar to this and of course Dunblane.

12 dead now.
The Kentish one will be wondering how it will affect England's World Cup preparations.

We can enter 'Boom Bang A Bang' in next years Eurovision song contest

Absolutely horrific watching the news just seeing how senseless and random this was. A poor old woman’s body covered up on a village footpath who was delivering catalogues, a bloke riding his bike shot straight through the neck, blokes at a taxi rank.

They are going on about government policy and guns laws which is ridiculous, unless you can invent something that reads peoples minds something like this is totally unavoidable. If somebody has reached the mental state that means they are capable of something like this just how do you stop them? Like suicide bombers… unstoppable if someone is prepared to do that. You’ve just got to hope you are never in the wrong place at the wrong time, unlike those 30 odd poor sods today.

People who knew this bloke said he was no bother to anyone, the last person you'd expect to do something like this.

So where did he get the gun from then?

Possibly held a licence to keep guns?
The guys obviously cracked, doesn't seem like it was something planned.
Will the families ever find out.
It's really foooking sad.

Just ban guns full stop no need for them whatsoever in this day and age apart from the police .What a senseless waste of life R.I.P.

It would be great if that solved the problem but it wont.

Trouble is that almost all gun crime is committed by people who do not have a licence. Illegal guns are the problem not guns perse'. That said I see no reason why they should be outside of an armoury at a gun club.

erm what about farmers and people that go shooting. That argument is stupid, why dont we ban knifes and cars then?

Apparently the weapons were indeed licenced.

I hope some other nutter(s) don't get any ideas from this.
RIP to these unfortunate ones.

People who hunt should have nutcrackers placed on their bollokcs and then squeezed real hard:)

Look lets not get into that again because I think your opinion is flawed and very hypocritical. But saying all guns should be banned because one person flipped (and only about 3 in my lifetime that have done this) is like saying that all knifes over 2" in length should be banned and cars as they kill more people.

Guns don't kill people.

People kill people.

Mr Compo, how can you compare a motorised vehicle to a firearm?
Cars are a mode of transport, guns are for killing people are they not?

Mr Bandages does have a point, guns are specifically designed to kill, cars are not.

very true they are designed for that purpose and cars for transport. The thing I was saying that just banning guns becasue of one incident is nonesense. How long have guns been in this country? We dont have a high level of gun crime and killings so why ban them.

This was a tragic incident of a man tipped over the edge and cracking, he could have done the same with a knife, hammer or even ran loads of people down in his car. That was the point I was making.

People who want to do these things find a way whether or not you make guns illegal or not.

But therein lies the problem, how many people have to 'tip over the edge' before this particular nettle is grasped? Theres over 50 dead bodies in Whitehaven, Hungerford and Dumblane. If people want them for sport fine, but keep them in an armoury. Farmers are often cited but why? We don't have wolves roaming these days.

I can think of no reason why people need to keep guns at home.

What he said.

If guns are kept in an armoury then someone who is tipped over the edge cant just pick up a gun & go shooting,he has to go to the armoury,explain why he wants his gun,where he is going,what he will be doing,how long he will be doing it etc.
If the armoury keeper isnt satisfied then the gun is not issued.

That makes sense to me.

On the point of having a gun illegally..............the penalties should be prohibitive to deter most people as you can never deter everybody.
Me.........I'd just turn the gun on them like..................
Apart from popguns at the fair and shooting small bore at a gun club ( once ), I have never fired a "proper" gun and have no intentions of doing so.
Shooting the likes of birds for sport doesn't appeal to me. I wish the birds could shoot back...........now that would be worth watching.

That point is just Barmy, if I kept my gun in this mentioned armoury and visitied quiet a lot to shoot clays or to take my gun out shoot pigeons / geese etc, the staff would know me. I am a good guy and serve no threat to anyone (just like this taxi driver did) one day I flip walk up to get my gun act normal and they would issue it to me, all you have to say is "alright mate I am going down greatham creek to shoot the pigeons and will be back in 2 hours"

Why Like? I dont go shooting for "sport" its something I have always done with my uncles and eat everything I kill.

I am not going into this again as will get lightening tree calling me a savage, even though he eats meat and cant give me a good argument against it.

For one I wouldnt allow you to go to Greatham creek or anywhere else you fancy,there should be designated places you can use your gun.You enter the grounds of the place through a locked gate & cant leave unless you have returned your gun.
Secondly,someone who flips may well pick up a gun & go wild,but is not likely to go to an armoury & sign a weapon out before he goes on the rampage.

Thing is, if someone had the mind to, they could go about harming/killing people with a pointed stick, but to solve the issue would you then go about chopping down all the trees to try and make sure it did'nt happen again?
You cannot legislate for "one-off" acts of mindless violence, but you can improve on dated law.
Also having an armoury in essence sounds like a good idea, but keeping a stockpile of numerous weapons in one location would make it a major target for certain factions, and someone in a deluded state of mind is hardly going to take a "no" from an armoury keeper particularly well iwi.

Do they not allow cover versions ?

Yeah because serial killers and people who flipped are never organised are they.

Who are going to build these fences and locked gates round farm land then? Its a fact of the world farmers themselves or people they let onto their land have guns to cull things eating or they dont want.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7799045/Cumbria-shootings-row-over-family-will-leaves-12-dead-and-25-injured.html
It has been reported that Bird had initially armed himself with two guns on Tuesday night, but was disarmed by a friend.

Bird is then believed to have sought medical help at a local hospital for his fragile mental state, only to be turned away.

If you really want an answer to " Why Like?"..............how about cos that's what I think, or that's my opinion, or cos I'm obviously different in my thinking to you.
Take your pick.
It just doesn't appeal to me..........ok??????????
Which part of that don't you understand????????????
I'm not questioning what you do...............I just don't see it floating my boat.

Fair enough point taken

The only thing that surprises me about what happened yesterday, is that something similar doesn't happen more often, it made me think about this.....

"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

Reminds me the time of the Hungford shootings

A taxi driver asked Michael Ryan for a tip

Ryan replied

'Keep you fooking head down'

[/quote]Yeah because serial killers and people who flipped are never organised are they.[/quote]

Only on Wednesdays, it appears???

Hungerford
Dunblane
Whitehaven

Someone with a bit more time on their hands check if each of these incidents occurred on the same weekday.

Maybe The Boomtown Rats should have sung 'I don't like Wednesdays'!

Hungerford 19/08/1987 Wednesday

Dunblane 13/03/1996 Wednesday

Cumbria 02/06/2010 Wednesday


Source of Info:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10216955.stm
http://scphillips.com/cgi-bin/day.cgi

Weather lovely down here today, heard its -12 in Whitehaven

joke sent to me by my mate

Mr Compo, I completely disagree with your assertion of the right of people, albeit under licence, to have easy access to firearms stored for example in their house.

In the past I would've probably agreed with you and others who are saying "why should one nutter spoil it for everybody else", but now I think that attitude is totally sefish and out of order.

When this hit the news the other day and events were unfolding about how he was shooting random people one of my first thoughts was that I was glad that my wife and boy weren't wandering around the vicinity. If the loon had been in Hartlepool they would have been, and they might have been amongst the unlucky people getting popped. Why should they (or other people) be at an increased risk of a fruitcake gunman just because people like you stamp their feet and throw their toys around shouting about how it's not fair that they are penalised from keeping guns because of the actions of a random head the ball?

I understand the argument that if anybody really wanted a gun they could get one licence or not, however now surely is the time to ban them outright and try and reduce the risk of an incident like this being repeated in the future. Even possession of a gun should carry a minimum 10 years in the big house whether it was intended to be used or not, that would deter folk from having them lying around and able to be used should they flip one day.

Anybody who particularly wants to go hunting and shooting at birds and animals can go somewhere like the USA where they embrace it, although they might not feel as superior hunting bears that might eat them if it goes wrong as opposed to shooting at pigeons and deer.

Totally understand you arguement Ripper, however my point still stands were would this stop? If a "head the ball" decided this Wednesday I am going out to kill myself but going out in a blaze of "glory" and taking a few with him, do you think that not having a gun would stop them?

Hammers, Knifes, nail-guns etc can all be used in a similar way to this, I know their use isnt for killing and guns are, but you cannot stop isolated incidents like this one. Same goes for that loon the nail bomber who killed loads of people.

People like this are on the edge focused to do harm, banning guns is not the answer. Didnt this fella go and try and seek medical help before doing this and yet his calls for help were ignored.

I have a gun in my folks house, however its useless, I have the key to my gun cabinet with me in huntingdon so noone can get in it and if they did there are no cartridges in the house, so basically its a bit pipe of metal with wood on the end most damage you could do to anyone is pistol-wip them.

Unless you know me how would anyone know I have a gun cabinet in my loft? How many burglers do you know that would climb into a loft and set to work breaking into a cabinet, 1) thats drilled and fixed to the chimney and 2) they dont have any keys for?

Burlgers want to be in and out our house asap, I dont thing having it there is dangerous at all, also when buying cartridges you need your licence. My gun comes out about 3 times a year twice when i go shooting and once to oil the thing.

Also if guns were banned who would give me my £750 back for my gun?

To kill vermin like foxes and rats and stoodents