there has been a mad gunman loose in cumbria...

[stokemaveric]

there are reports of several fatalalities...lets hope this lunatic is apprahended soon..what is happening to people nowadays?

[anotheoldgit]

moonraker558

That is what we call them in the trade.

You are such a smart ar*e, If you knew what I meant why bother posting..

[jackthehat]

DrFilth - Apparently, he was exhibiting signs of 'disturbance' before he started on his shooting rampage; many hours before. If he had had to attend a police-station to claim his guns the officers may (hopefully) have declined to let him have them seeing him so agitated.
Farmers can have the option of keeping them securely at the farm (as many now do) or retrieving them from the police station.

EDDIE 51 - I meant 'ordinary' to mean someone who fancies owning a gun......just because they can, as opposed to someone, who in the course of their work, actually 'needs' one.

[DrFilth]

jackthehat this is taken from the bbc news

Shop worker Iris Carruthurs, 49, was walking her dogs outside Mr Commons' home at Mowbray Farm when she saw Bird in his taxi.

She said: "He passed me and went down to the bottom of the main road, turned, and he came back up.

Iris Carruthers: "I just said 'hiya lad, are you alright'"
"Slowly he drove alongside me and I said 'hiya lad, you alright?'

"He didn't speak, he was in a world of his own, and I just kept on walking.

"He was stationed at the gate on the way up to the tip road. I just left him there.

"I thought he was just normal, I didn't think there was anything untoward. I just thought he had been to the farm and dropped somebody off because he was in his taxi."

Asked if she felt she had a lucky escape, she said: "That's what my friends have been saying, but I haven't sat down and thought about that."

notice how she says ( "I thought he was just normal, I didn't think there was anything untoward. )

so if the police had his guns and he went to pick them up they may have felt the same

[jackthehat]

Indeed, they 'may'..........sadly we'll never know.

[one-big-letdown]

Such a tragic event...

However, I don't think banning guns completly would prevent similar incidents in the future... Maybe putting a restriction on the power of guns able to be legally held could help? As in, Shotguns & .22's are obviously very powerful "machines"... Maybe guns such as air rifles should be the only ones legal? Not sure how much damage air rifles can do, but from what some are saying on here, they aren't as powerful?

Just my view...