Yesterday a man in Cumbria in north-west England, instead of learning from previous murderous nutters, shot dead 12 people and injured 11 others - some critically - before turning the gun on himself.
His first victim was his own twin brother, the second a fellow cab driver. Then he just drove around randomly shooting people he came across in the beautiful Cumbrian countryside.
Cumbria is a quiet county where holidays-makers throng all year round. It contains the Lake District, now a country park, where Wordsworth lived and wrote some of his finest poetry.
It also contains Sellafield nuclear plant (previously Windscale, till it was renamed following one of the first nuclear accidents) which was shut down while the "incident" (which lasted 3 hours) was in progress. The local police force was under such strain that some of the nuclear plant's dedicated police team had to help out. Local radio broadcsast warnings for people to stay inside. The funeral of a schoolgirl killed last week in a school bus crash was disrupted when the mourners had to take cover.
Here is the man responsible - Derrick Bird. Congratulations, Derrick, you're famous now. Much good may it do your corpse.
Neighbours said he was a pleasant man, a loving grandfather.
And the owner of two legally held firearms. Despite a conviction for theft in the 1990s.
In the UK we have some of the tightest firearms controls in the world. This is only our fourth ever mass shooting. There were just 39 deaths by shooting in the UK last year. Gun ownership is tiny, and gun use is very strictly regulated - to the extent that our Olympians have to train abroad.
SO WHY DID A CAB DRIVER NEED A LICENCE FOR TWO LETHAL WEAPONS? AND WHY DID THE LOCAL CONSTABULARY LET HIM HAVE THAT LICENCE, THEN LET HIM RENEW IT YEAR AFTER YEAR?
I read this article in the paper this morning. Awful! Absolutely wasteful. It is surprising that with a country with such strick gun laws that this could even happen. I suppose if there's a will there's away. What a shame.
ReplyDeleteYeah that was pretty bad....I heard about it yesterday. How sad for all of the families!!
ReplyDeleteI have no solution to the 'why' question though. But then again, living in the USA, I'm used to these shooting massacres. It's sad but if it doesn't happen in their own community, Americans pretty much just shrug them off as just another gun toting nut job out to take revenge on the world and everyone who wronged them.
Val, I'm so sorry this had to happen to some of your lovely citizens! It's such a shame that the "lust for guns" has infiltrated the minds of so many people these days -- many of them totally irresponsible. I just don't get it. I hate guns.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to kill yourself...Fine kill yourself, but leave innocent people alone. BTW...You never see women doing this.
ReplyDeleteThat's right, Tess. Like Eames once said, "Just skip the middleman."
ReplyDeleteOh but I have fantasized about it on MANY occasions, Tess! lol Usually on my commutes to/from work.
ReplyDeleteIt's always interesting to me how someone can go on a rampage and shoot and kill people then turn the gun on themselves. It's not like there is any lasting feeling of satisfaction...you're dead. It's senseless, cowardly and further leaves those victim's families at a loss for explanation and justice. Ten years ago this happened:
ReplyDeleteFriday, April 28, 2000
At 1:30 p.m. EDT, Richard Baumhammers walked to the home of his next-door neighbor, a 63 year old Jewish woman named Anita "Nicki" Gordon and fatally shot her, then set her house on fire. Gordon had been friends with Baumhammers' parents for 31 years. Afterwards, Baumhammers jumped into his black Jeep Cherokee and drove to the Beth El Congregation in Scott Township, where Gordon was a member of the synagogue. There, he fired into the windows of the synagogue, then exited his vehicle and spray-painted two red swastikas on the building.
A short distance from the synagogue at the India Grocer in Scott Town Center, 31 year old Anil Thakur, formerly of Bihar, India was shot to death while picking up groceries on his lunch hour. A 25 year old store manager named Sandeep Patel was shot in the neck and paralyzed. Patel would use a wheelchair for the next seven years before dying at the age of 32 in February, 2007 from complications due to pneumonia at UPMC, in McCandless, Pennsylvania.
Baumhammers next drove to the Ahavath Achim Congregation in Carnegie where he shattered the synagogue's glass windows with gunfire. At Robinson Town Centre, about ten miles from his home, he walked into Ya Fei Chinese Cuisine where two Asian-Americans, Chinese restaurant manager Ji-ye Sun, aged 34 and Theo "Tony" Pham, a 27 year-old Vietnamese-American cook were fatally shot in front of customers.
From Robinson Town Center, Baumhammers drove to the C.S. Kim School of Karate in Center Township, Beaver County where Garry Lee, a 22 year old African-American was exercising with a European-American friend, George Thomas II. Baumhammers initially pointed the gun at Thomas, then turned and fired at Lee, killing him instantly.
Our Governor in Pennsylvania signed an execution order and he was to be executed on March 18, 2010 but in February a judge granted him an indefinite stay of execution. Better he should have shot himself or better that he sit in prison while we the taxpayers foot the bill?
I was so sorry to read about this yesterday on the internet. Unfortunately, here in the U.S., people are almost "used" to these mass shootings.
ReplyDeleteHindsight is a wonderful thing, and sadly, no one had a crystal ball to 'know' this was going to happen. I just wish the stupid bastard had blown himself away first, without taking unsuspecting 'company' with him.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad and insane. I don't understand these people...
ReplyDelete