Gunman in Cumbria

That must have been terrifying. What on earth happened to trigger that?

Those poor families having to come to terms with losing loved ones, and the gunman's family not only having to cope with his death but the fact that he murdered a lot of other people too.

What a sad and terrible thing to happen.
 
Don't live locally but I used to west of Penrith and i'm now just the other side of the A66.. as has been said, nothing ever happens in Cumbria, so for something like this to happen is such a shock. Its just like Hungerford all over again and it must have been terrifying for everyone in the area
 
Reminds me of when Martin Bryant did the same thing in 1997 in Tasmania, except he killed 35 people, and was caught alive.

At least this animal is dead and off the streets.........
 
I don't know about you guys but I'm sick of the 24/7 media coverage of this stuff.

There's even a school of thought that the more you cover these events the more likely someone is to copy them.
 
I just came back in to say maybe the TV coverage (I don't see the newspapers) is keeping it low key, therefore following these guidelines to some extent, but they're still keeping it going all day long.

There was also an American psychologist* on TV last night (only caught a few minutes of it) and she was saying something similar.

(* She was also verrrrrrrrrry nice!)
 
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It looks like he had not paid his Taxes, and who goes up there to comfort the survivers It seems that Whithaven only makes the news when somthing bad like the floods or this hapens leave them alone,
 
As far as gun licensing is concerned, it seems it's one law for Cumbria and one law for everybody else. Up there it seems you've only got to ask and you'll get a license ("our way of life, you know").
 
Gun licences and shotgun certificates are granted by tame officials who just happen to belong to the same "club" but this will not be disclosed because at least one of the senior officers investigating this case will belong to the same "club".
 
You mean a shooting club, or are the inverted commas meant to imply the local Masonic lodge, Walsy?
 
I understand why the local community in their absolute heartbreak in the immediate aftermath want to know 'why' it happend, but I find this on-going media circus that is looking for 'reasons' why he did it all a bit weird. I wouldn't of thought there were a valid reason on gods green earth why someone would do that, maybe I'm missing something.

Perhaps allowing us to delve into the minds of mass murderers is good and liberating for us all in some way...?

A criminal psychologist based on news at ten reports I'd rather not be...
 
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owning guns seems to be a common theme between these people..i know its sounds obvious but..apart from enjoying shooting at targets why the fook would anyone want a gun anyway?

apart from that - you have what appears to be a very troubled mind with the ability..owning deadly weapons..to show the world he isn't the nothing that he thought others believed him to be...its a..you won't ever forget me now.. job
 
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walsworth said:
Give the lady a coconut, got it in one!
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The fact that he had a licence for the gun, has little to do with why he went bonkers,
He was a fight and proper person, when he took it out, however have you got any clew how much it would cost to keep an up to date check on people, down here in London a member of the police fire arms squad went nuts and shot his wife, ok. he did not kill 15 people, but how dose a taxi driver from Whitehaven afford to go to Bancock, many times,
 
Cherchez la femme according to the Telegraph today:

The 52-year-old taxi driver had become fixated with a woman he knew only as “Hon”, who he had met on holiday in Thailand.


The pair met in 2007 and she had agreed to move to Britain to live with him.

It is understood that Bird – who was in serious financial difficulty – had sent her thousands of pounds, only to be rejected.

Last month, Hon, 32, sent him a text message saying she had met someone else and wanted no further contact with him.

A friend of Bird’s said: “She had no interest in him whatsoever, he felt like such a mug.

“Derrick said he had been made a fool out of, he couldn’t believe it.

“He couldn’t believe he had been so stupid. He went downhill from there but no one in the world would ever suspected what he would go and do.”

Terry Kennedy, a taxi driver and friend of Bird’s, was one of a group who had travelled to Thailand with Bird when the killer met Hon.

Mr Kennedy was shot in the hand last Wednesday by Bird and is still in hospital recovering.

He said the group had to gone to bars such as the Spicy Girls A Go Go venue and the Kennel Bar.

“Hon looked about 19 but I think she was about 30 at the time,” he said.

“I knew Derrick liked the lass so I told him to go for it, he had nothing to lose.”

Mr Kennedy, who is having specialist surgery on his hand, added: “To think I classed Derrick as a mate and then he goes and does this to me and all those other people is beyond words.”
 
I can't believe he was so stupid, either. Don't blokes realise by now that any woman they meet in a bar - let alone a Bangkok bar, where it mightn't turn out to be a woman at all! - who takes thousands of pounds off them on a promise, is just a hustler? Suckers like these belong in The Muppet Show.
 
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