U.K. Cops Find Body of Suspected Gunman in Deadly Shooting Spree

[TechMan]

But but but they have gun control, this shouldn't have happened.   [/sarcasm]

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/06/02/report-feared-dead-shooting-northern-england/

U.K. Cops Find Body of Suspected Gunman in Deadly Shooting Spree

Published June 02, 2010

Associated Press

LONDON -- A taxi driver went on a shooting spree across a picturesque rural area of northwestern England on Wednesday, killing several people and wounding others before police discovered the suspect's body in a wooded area.

Officers have found a body believed to be that of 52-year-old Derrick Bird in woods near the Lake District village of Boot, Cumbria police said. A gun was found alongside the body.

Police say there have been "a number of fatalities" as well as several injuries after shots were fired Wednesday in the small town of Whitehaven and nearby Seascale and Egremont, about 350 miles (560 kilometers) northwest of London.

Britain's Press Association news agency said at least four people were feared dead. The BBC reported there had been shootings in 11 locations.

"I can confirm that we've found a body in a wooded area near Boot which we believe to be Mr. Bird, together with a firearm," Cumbria police Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Hyde said. "A formal identification will be made later."

Witness Alan Hannah told the Whitehaven News that he saw a man with a shotgun in a car near a taxi stand in Whitehaven, about 200 miles (325 kilometers) northwest of London. Witnesses said a body, covered in a sheet, was lying in the street.

Local lawmaker Jamie Reed said the area was 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."

Multiple shootings are rare in Britain, where gun ownership is tightly restricted and handguns are banned.

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 kindergarten in Dunblane, Scotland.

[Iain]

12 confirmed dead, not including him. 25 others injured.

Impossible to know what to think about this. The examples given in the article above are so famous because they are the only other occasions when something like this has happened here.

[Stand_watie]

12 confirmed dead, not including him. 25 others injured.

Impossible to know what to think about this. The examples given in the article above are so famous because they are the only other occasions when something like this has happened here.

It appears to occur at about the same frequency with draconian gun control measures, as without. I'll admit I haven't researched incidents prior to Hungerford, but I wouldn't be surprised to discover that statistical modelling showed roughly similar patterning from Hungerford back to the next society changing cultural more shift (ww2?).

Mass murder certainly occurred in Britain before Hungerford, and certainly would occur even after the proverbial magic wand were waved that eliminated firearms, if all other societal issues were equal.

[Northwoods]

Be interesting to find out if he legally owned the shotgun.  Either way I'm sure that this will used by the anti-gunners there to institute yet more draconian restrictions.  Nevermind that with commonplace gun keeping and bearing someone might well have been able to return fire and stop the nutjob before he got that far along in his rampage.

[MicroBalrog]

1. Any country will experience random and horrific violent acts every now and then, regardless of it's rate of routine violence and crime. People pay way too much attention to these, as they have no bearing on your actual chance of getting shot and killed.   These events actually mean nothing in terms of what we know about actual, routine, and far more dangerous violent crime, except for of course being horrible tragedies for those affected and their loved ones.

2. Nevertheless, there will be people who try to use these for political purposes. Sometimes they're on our side (like that Texas politician who lost her husband in a shooting) but mostly they're on the anti-gun, anti-freedom side. There was talk, AFAIK, about the tories throwing out the pistol 'ban'. That won't happen now, and there will be worse restrictions. People who will oppose this will be accused of being uncaring and 'mean',

[KD5NRH]

(like that Texas politician who lost her husband in a shooting)

Both parents, actually.  She was destined to become either a politician or a superhero after that.  Although she has the figure for a Batgirl-type outfit, we're still glad she did as much for Texas gun rights as she did.

[Iain]

It appears to occur at about the same frequency with draconian gun control measures, as without. I'll admit I haven't researched incidents prior to Hungerford, but I wouldn't be surprised to discover that statistical modelling showed roughly similar patterning from Hungerford back to the next society changing cultural more shift (ww2?).

Mass murder certainly occurred in Britain before Hungerford, and certainly would occur even after the proverbial magic wand were waved that eliminated firearms, if all other societal issues were equal.

Statement had nothing to do with gun control, this would be as shocking if it was a random series of fatal attacks with a knife.

I've looked, we have multiple killers who were arsonists or people who killed their whole family or a family they were connected to. Random spree killings - pretty much this, Dunblane and Hungerford. We've obviously a history of terrorism, including recent islamic extremists and a far right type who nail bombed a gay pub.

This is random, and in a very quiet and rural part of the world. Some of the communities I grew up in in Cornwall are as rural and quiet and it is really hard to imagine something like this happening there.

[seeker_two]

It appears to occur at about the same frequency with draconian gun control measures, as without.

True....but the frequency of the BG being shot before he kills more people is far lower....