Gun Controls Post Recent Shooting

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Tazz

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I don’t want to overly comment on the Plymouth shooting other than to express my sympathy and sadness at the event. My point is that after any multiple shootings in the U.K. we then get a “Review” my concern is that we may well “ Knee jerk” in to additional controls and potential bans, the anti gun lobby will be fanning the flames behind the scenes. The media are reporting the individual did have a license for a shotgun if that turns out to be right then there will be a full review. With the police trying to save money over the last few years we have seen more and more renewals being completed over the phone not face to face so 10 years may have lapsed since the police sit and interview FAC/Shotgun Certificate holders. ( My last renewal for both certs was all completed over the phone). I fear a serious rethink of the current licensing process may well be about to happen
 
Speculation about anything in this aftermath is best left.
Now is for the expression of sorrow, sadness at the loss of life and the damage it will cause to the lives of those relatives who are left.
Let others persue their agndas whilst we, as a community, regret the loss of life, especially the young and await the truth in all the flowering of so much fiction.
 
Well its too early to speculate, and it is something I have no doubt that all legitimate SG and FAC holders will be aware of. However all constabularies are under increasing pressure with regards to keeping the whole FA Licensing act going. One would not be surprised to see a large increase in Licence fees, as it certainly is a loss making exercise.
It will be the government insurers and faces in Whitehall that put forward any new proposals. As a side note just listening to the news, it appears that the culprit was on social media/you tube I believe with some very odd behaviour.

My sympathies and heart felt condolences to all those affected. And also for the police officers who had to confront the whole scene.
 
Very sad events, thoughts are with all those tragically taken too soon and families affected
 
The pattern followed by previous tragedies of this nature is that we all get scapegoated and have to endure even more petty bureaucracy in the name of strict gun controls. Perhaps the authorities need to stop obsessing about rounds held, types & number of guns, open/closed certificates, land checks etc. and focus on the person instead. The law places a duty on Chiefs of Police to ensure that the individual is "fit to be entrusted" and "will not endanger public safety", clearly they have failed in this case. What will be interesting to see is if the person involved in the Plymouth incident had supplied a GP reference?
 
A dreadful event - my sincere condolences to those affected..
From the information available, it appears that he was an FAC holder and the weapon used was a pump action or semi auto shotgun.
It looks like he fired 8 shots, with last one being for himself
8 shots would tally up with many section 1 shotguns
Timbrayfords point about whether or not he had a GP letter was supplied for the grant/renewal of his FAC is well made

Cheers

Bruce
 
GP report or not it is only an MOT valid on the day of issue. Clearly impossible to stop the event without the help of the family and people around him alerting the police to his mental state, a state he had made public three weeks ago on Facebook, if what is being reported is correct.

Cannot image the pain the family and friends of the victims are going through.
 
I don’t want to overly comment on the Plymouth shooting other than to express my sympathy and sadness at the event. My point is that after any multiple shootings in the U.K. we then get a “Review” my concern is that we may well “ Knee jerk” in to additional controls and potential bans, the anti gun lobby will be fanning the flames behind the scenes. The media are reporting the individual did have a license for a shotgun if that turns out to be right then there will be a full review. With the police trying to save money over the last few years we have seen more and more renewals being completed over the phone not face to face so 10 years may have lapsed since the police sit and interview FAC/Shotgun Certificate holders. ( My last renewal for both certs was all completed over the phone). I fear a serious rethink of the current licensing process may well be about to happen
Its the possible reaction of GPs that bothers me. If this bloke's SGC application included a GP letter the finger of blame will be pointed, by the press at least, at the GP. The consequences of this could be that many more GPs will refuse to provide reports or worse, the BMA will advise GPs not to provide reports because of possible legal action, therby bringing the licencing system to a grinding halt. The police forces who have insisted on GP reports will just sit on their backsides and wait for someone else to sort the problem.
 
D & C Police have released a timeline of the 12-minute gun attack:
  • At 6.11pm on Thursday, Jake Davison, dressed in black, bursts into a house in Biddick Drive, Plymouth, and opens fire on a female relative with what is believed to be a legally held pump-action shotgun.
  • Police receive multiple calls that shots have been fired at the address. Police, including armed officers, are scrambled to the scene. They arrive at 6.17pm.
  • After leaving the relative’s house, Davison walks back out on to Biddick Drive and shoots dead a three-year-old girl and her male relative. He also shoots and injures a man and a woman, who receive significant and life-changing injuries.
  • Davison then begins walking through a narrow park where he shoots dead a man.
  • Davison emerges from the park on to another residential road, Henderson Place. He turns left and shoots a woman close to a hair salon named Blush. According to some witnesses, she had just walked out of the salon.
  • The gunman then turns his weapon on himself, killing himself at 6.23pm as armed offices close in on him. It is not clear if he knew any of the six people he shot outdoors, but he is not believed to have been related to any of them.
I don't think now is the time to post anything on what the consequences might be for firearms licencing, or to accuse the police of failing yet. I just can't get my head around the enormity of this crime, or sum up my feelings in words. It's an unspeakable tragedy particularly that a tiny tot has lost her life in this madness.
 
Let others persue their agndas whilst we, as a community, regret the loss of life, especially the young and await the truth in all the flowering of so much fiction.
No. That was what was advised by the British Shooting Sports Council after Hugerford and after Dunblane. It didn't work then and it won't work now.
 
The circumstances surrounding his FAC grant/renewal will all come out in the enquiry process.
He could have been over 4 years into his current FAC (maybe granted without a GP letter) and have not been near his GP or any other medical professionals during the validity of his current cert and become mentally unstable only recently
The bottom line is that in those circumstances there's not much anyone could have done to prevent this terrible tragedy.
It' also the case that this is only the fourth event of this type (Hungerford, Dunblane, Cumbria) to happen in almost 25 years.
I agree that's four too many, but for comparison there were 19 incidents as bad or worse than this in the USA last year alone.

Cheers

Bruce
 
The circumstances surrounding his FAC grant/renewal will all come out in the enquiry process.
He could have been over 4 years into his current FAC (maybe granted without a GP letter) and have not been near his GP or any other medical professionals during the validity of his current cert and become mentally unstable only recently
The bottom line is that in those circumstances there's not much anyone could have done to prevent this terrible tragedy.
It' also the case that this is only the fourth event of this type (Hungerford, Dunblane, Cumbria) to happen in almost 25 years.
I agree that's four too many, but for comparison there were 19 incidents as bad or worse than this in the USA last year alone.

Cheers

Bruce

Was hungerford not ‘87? That’s nearly 35 years ago. Even Dunblane was (just) over 25 years ago.
 
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