Cumbria gunman Derrick Bird kills at least 12 in rampage

[Tank]

FFS - What makes someone go nuts like this?

A taxi driver who went on the rampage along the coast of West Cumbria today killed at least 12 people — injuring 25 others, three critically — before taking his own life, police said tonight.

Britain’s worst mass killing since the 1996 Dunblane massacre began at 10.35am with a double murder at a taxi rank in the town of Whitehaven and ended three hours later when police found the body of 52-year-old Derrick Bird in woodland near a Lake District beauty spot.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle7142413.ece

[Swoop]

So much for the UK firearm laws. They have banned virtually everything, yet there are "around 100 firearm related deaths" each year. Time to adopt the NZ system that works exceedingly well... but the nation that provides us with "big brother is watching" will not even consider that approach!

[schrodingers cat]

What makes someone go nuts like this?

Professional cage driver. SIDSYM

[98tls]

One can only hope that there is indeed such a place as hell.

[twotyred]

shit happens...

[Motu]

Being a Caucasian taxi driver puts him in a minority group - they should have realized the stress this would cause and given him counseling.

[sil3nt]

So much for the UK firearm laws. They have banned virtually everything, yet there are "around 100 firearm related deaths" each year. Time to adopt the NZ system that works exceedingly well... but the nation that provides us with "big brother is watching" will not even consider that approach!

According to rather outdated stats New Zealand ranks a fair few places higher than England in the firearm related deaths per 100,000 people stats.

[Swoop]

1993?

That is prior to the firearms law amendments coming into force here, also the reference is quoted as being 1998.

Yay for statistics and even more yay for outdated statistics.
Even the US stats will be vastly different with the changes to their environment.

[imdying]

According to rather outdated stats New Zealand ranks a fair few places higher than England in the firearm related deaths per 100,000 people stats.

I'm pretty happy with both those results; most of them are suicides, so it's only gene pool cleansing rather than firearm crime.

[devnull]

If you want to see REALLY low violent crime rates - look to Vermont.
The public will often be armed, and take a very dim view of criminal behaviour.


"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
-- Thomas Jefferson