Shooting Spree in England.

[sneakypenguin]

Too bad no one could have stopped him sooner. Glad I live in a state where self defense is a fiercely protected right.

And how do you expect to defend yourself against a man in a cab, with a gun?

Self defence is not the problem here and neither is England's policy on it, should somebody have killed the man in an act of self defence then they would not have been procicuted for it.

Man in cab with gun meet 16 rounds of 1600 fps 140grain .357 sig, just saying unless its a sneak attack we'd be equal. Self defense is an issue when a law abiding public is not provided with the means to defend themselves efficiently. UK doesn't even have a castle law...

 

[Actual]

People aren't reading the story. This man drove about, seemingly at random, and fired at passers by. Someone carrying a gun could not have stopped him.

If anything we should be arguing for better equipped and more police, if a helicopter and armed response unit could have got to him after the first killing all the rest could have been prevented.

Gun control laws have so little to do with this case it's infuriating to see people use it to score a couple of cheap points.

A shot in the radiator would break the car soon. A shot in the tire would stop the car very soon. A shot in him would stop the car immediately.

But yes, armed police are also good. Do the regular police carry guns over there?

No, only specially trained units. The number of them varies from county to county. But these units are usually in their cars at all times on patrol waiting for the emergency calls.

I suppose you're right, an armed bystander may have been able to do as you describe. But it's hard to say if anyone would react quick enough do it.

But my stance on gun's in the U.K is a big no. The only reason I leave the house past 8 in the evening is because I know I can handle the random scumbag attacks. If they were armed I'd never dare leave the house.

Wouldn't matter if I was armed too, they're not going to let me take 10 paces turn and fire, traditional like.

I don't understand it the UK is supposed to be the safest, bestest, most wonderful society in the entire world and they have a guy shoot 37 people spread out of 30 different locations and nobody was able to stop him.

At some point it's good to look back in on yourself and ask, "Are we really doing this the right way?"

I agree we really messed up this situation, this line from the article in particular emphasises that the police force weren't stopping him.

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.

He drove about 20 miles with the police tracking him, and they couldn't stop him killing people along the way! We really need to now why.

An armed unit in a helicopter could reach anywhere in Cumbria in under 20 minutes. Even without that our police are equipped with stingers to stop a car, they are even trained to ram vehicles off the road.

I don't know why this was allowed to continue.

 

[Dan B]

12 people killed by one madman with a gun.

You see, if we legalised guns over here, this sort of thing would happen much more frequently.

EDIT: Yes, OK, if guns were legal over here, someone could have stopped him. But then there would be a lot more guns on the streets, and thugs with knives would become thugs with guns. You can outrun someone with a knife. Outrunning bullets is something much harder.

To quote some famous whose name escapes me (i'm sure someone will remind me in a couple of posts time) "the problem with laws against guns is that they only disarm those who are inclined to follow the law."

incidentally the average untrained gun wielding hoody can only hit 1 shot in 57 on a moving target whereas running from the police and other knife-wielding hoodys means they could probably outrun and stab me, I'd take the one in 57 chance personally.

 

[Spacewolf]

By the sound of it, you wouldn't have to stop it immediately. You could have shot the radiator and after a while, the car would stop. You could also shoot a tire and have the car stop quickly.

not exactly as he could still drive on a flat and he wasnt exactly worried about hurting himself considering this ended in the same way as the american school shootings did with the guy shooting hiself

 

[crimson5pheonix]

By the sound of it, you wouldn't have to stop it immediately. You could have shot the radiator and after a while, the car would stop. You could also shoot a tire and have the car stop quickly.

not exactly as he could still drive on a flat and he wasnt exactly worried about hurting himself considering this ended in the same way as the american school shootings did with the guy shooting hiself

If he crashed, he wouldn't be able to continue driving and shooting. That's all I'm saying.

 

[acosn]

Oh England you cards you, trying to regulate your citizens like its Fahrenheit 451.

 

[sneakypenguin]

I like how there is a mass murder and all the weenies immediately start blaming the gun.

I like how there is a mass murder and all the weenies immediately start blaming the gun.

Yeah if it was man drives car into crowd of people wounds 20 and kills 10 the car wouldn't even factor into the equation for some which seems a bit hypocritical to adjust their response to something based solely on the fact that its a gun.

 

[Dan B]

I blame video games, what other explanation could there be?

Hah don't even get them started that's going to be all I hear on the news for the next week, I just pray the guy only had a Nintendo Wii with nothing but Mario, Sonic and Zelda titles.

 

[That One Six]

To all of you saying that we need tighter gun control, I'd have to disagree. You see, if everyone has a pistol on their belt, only a truly mentally unwell person would dare fire at another human being. Mutually assured destruction, you see. Take rural Texas, for example. Gun laws are very lax, and there is almost no crime, as compared to a place like Baltimore, Maryland.

 

[Sparrow]

Man, that guy must have been messed up in the head. The worrying thing is that in one of the reports I heard, the guy clearly said he had a sniper rifle. How in the hell did he get his hands on one of those?

Also the US isn't as accustomed to dealing with Bombs as we are, thanks to the IRA and others.

Doesn't it make you proud to be English?

 

[dombot]

Im from this town and find it strange seeing a dead body outside the Chinese i got a chow mien from on sat before getting a taxi home from the taxi rank the man was killed at.

Cumbria is a massive place (not by American standards however) with tons of small towns and tiny back roads its really not surprising they couldn't catch him.

I just find it hard to believe that IN THIS CASE, someone else having a gun could have helped, most of the time he struck isolated people on their own by driving up beside them and shooting them in the face, he was gone before people could react.

As john oliver says "the last time the British were allowed guns the empire happened, an nobody wants that"

 

[crimson5pheonix]

To all of you saying that we need tighter gun control, I'd have to disagree. You see, if everyone has a pistol on their belt, only a truly mentally unwell person would dare fire at another human being. Mutually assured destruction, you see. Take rural Texas, for example. Gun laws are very lax, and there is almost no crime, as compared to a place like Baltimore, Maryland.

As much as I like other people helping, you can't compare rural Texas to Baltimore since Baltimore has a larger population density. They're naturally going to have more murders.

 

[Darkenwrath]

Calumon: ... *Silent in the memory of those lost*

Not everything is appropriate for Calumon no matter how you word it!

Gah but not to detract this is pretty horrific. Still could be alot worse, this is why I'm glad gun control is strict in my country. So this type of thing can't become run of the mill.

 

[That One Six]

To all of you saying that we need tighter gun control, I'd have to disagree. You see, if everyone has a pistol on their belt, only a truly mentally unwell person would dare fire at another human being. Mutually assured destruction, you see. Take rural Texas, for example. Gun laws are very lax, and there is almost no crime, as compared to a place like Baltimore, Maryland.

As much as I like other people helping, you can't compare rural Texas to Baltimore since Baltimore has a larger population density. They're naturally going to have more murders.

No, you really can't. I just hate modern gun control and Baltimore.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

To all of you saying that we need tighter gun control, I'd have to disagree. You see, if everyone has a pistol on their belt, only a truly mentally unwell person would dare fire at another human being. Mutually assured destruction, you see. Take rural Texas, for example. Gun laws are very lax, and there is almost no crime, as compared to a place like Baltimore, Maryland.

As much as I like other people helping, you can't compare rural Texas to Baltimore since Baltimore has a larger population density. They're naturally going to have more murders.

No, you really can't. I just hate modern gun control and Baltimore.

Well that's perfectly fair. Also, I live in rural Texas. So there.

 

[That One Six]

To all of you saying that we need tighter gun control, I'd have to disagree. You see, if everyone has a pistol on their belt, only a truly mentally unwell person would dare fire at another human being. Mutually assured destruction, you see. Take rural Texas, for example. Gun laws are very lax, and there is almost no crime, as compared to a place like Baltimore, Maryland.

As much as I like other people helping, you can't compare rural Texas to Baltimore since Baltimore has a larger population density. They're naturally going to have more murders.

No, you really can't. I just hate modern gun control and Baltimore.

Well that's perfectly fair. Also, I live in rural Texas. So there.

Lucky bastard. I live a few miles north of Baltimore.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Gah but not to detract this is pretty horrific. Still could be alot worse, this is why I'm glad gun control is strict in my country. So this type of thing can't become run of the mill.

Yup, it's been 14 years since something like this happened here, no gun control laws are ever going to be 100% effective but 14 years between spree killings is a pretty good run. I still think the pre Hungerford and Dunblane laws were ok in the most part though.

Man, that guy must have been messed up in the head. The worrying thing is that in one of the reports I heard, the guy clearly said he had a sniper rifle. How in the hell did he get his hands on one of those?

Manual action rifles are not illegal in the UK. A friend of mines dad has a couple of .303s. The shooter had a .22 apparently.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

To all of you saying that we need tighter gun control, I'd have to disagree. You see, if everyone has a pistol on their belt, only a truly mentally unwell person would dare fire at another human being. Mutually assured destruction, you see. Take rural Texas, for example. Gun laws are very lax, and there is almost no crime, as compared to a place like Baltimore, Maryland.

As much as I like other people helping, you can't compare rural Texas to Baltimore since Baltimore has a larger population density. They're naturally going to have more murders.

No, you really can't. I just hate modern gun control and Baltimore.

Well that's perfectly fair. Also, I live in rural Texas. So there.

Lucky bastard. I live a few miles north of Baltimore.

Don't start throwing around the "lucky bastard", you have to be around the people.

 

[That One Six]

To all of you saying that we need tighter gun control, I'd have to disagree. You see, if everyone has a pistol on their belt, only a truly mentally unwell person would dare fire at another human being. Mutually assured destruction, you see. Take rural Texas, for example. Gun laws are very lax, and there is almost no crime, as compared to a place like Baltimore, Maryland.

As much as I like other people helping, you can't compare rural Texas to Baltimore since Baltimore has a larger population density. They're naturally going to have more murders.

No, you really can't. I just hate modern gun control and Baltimore.

Well that's perfectly fair. Also, I live in rural Texas. So there.

Lucky bastard. I live a few miles north of Baltimore.

Don't start throwing around the "lucky bastard", you have to be around the people.

The people in my area are all "wiggers", as it were, other than the fortunate few who were blessed with enough brainpower to get into the AP classes.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

To all of you saying that we need tighter gun control, I'd have to disagree. You see, if everyone has a pistol on their belt, only a truly mentally unwell person would dare fire at another human being. Mutually assured destruction, you see. Take rural Texas, for example. Gun laws are very lax, and there is almost no crime, as compared to a place like Baltimore, Maryland.

As much as I like other people helping, you can't compare rural Texas to Baltimore since Baltimore has a larger population density. They're naturally going to have more murders.

No, you really can't. I just hate modern gun control and Baltimore.

Well that's perfectly fair. Also, I live in rural Texas. So there.

Lucky bastard. I live a few miles north of Baltimore.

Don't start throwing around the "lucky bastard", you have to be around the people.

The people in my area are all "wiggers", as it were, other than the fortunate few who were blessed with enough brainpower to get into the AP classes.

They exist here too. I actually do like the deep country folk, they're nice people (if a bit harsh on physical strength), but it's the kids who want to be in the suburbs or the inner city that get on my nerve.