Taxi Driver Online

Easier to buy bullets than Calpol, claims Cumbrian MP



It is tougher to buy children’s medicine than it is to buy bullets, according to a west Cumbrian MP.

Copeland Labour MP Jamie Reed has hit out at the Government’s lack of action to reform gun laws in light of the west Cumbrian shootings of 2010 and Monday’s brutal shootings in County Durham.

Taxi driver Michael Atherton shot and killed his partner Susan McGoldrick, her sister Alison Turnbull, 44 and her niece Tanya Turnbull, 24, before turning the gun on himself.

After Bird murdered 12 victims in June 2010, politicians led a series of debates discussing gun control.

The Home Affairs committee recommended simpler and tighter guidelines, including more police control on granting shotgun licences to former criminals, and suggested consulting partners of applicants.

But David Cameron has not yet made amendments to legislation.

Mr Reed said: “Responsible firearms owners deserve better, but most of all the public deserves better.

“It is still harder to buy Calpol for a poorly child than it is to buy bullets.

“What the motives are behind the prime minister’s refusal to implement sensible change remain to be seen.”

Mr Reed argued that Mr Cameron had left the door open for similar atrocities.

He said: “This latest tragedy has regrettably again demonstrated deficiencies in the law. The need for urgent, sensible change following our own tragedy was obvious.

“This does go straight to the prime minister.

“I have asked him about implementation of the recommendations at Prime Minister’s Questions. As usual, he refuses to engage with the question or give anything like an answer.”

Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat party president and MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, backed Mr Reed’s call for tighter laws.

He said: “All of the Home Office review into firearms rules must be implemented.”

A Downing Street spokesman said: “The prime minister’s thoughts are with the family and friends of those affected by the tragic events in Horden. No one should be in any doubt the Government’s and prime minister’s first duty and highest priority is the protection of the public.”


http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/easie ... s/business

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I'd bet him a fiver it isn't.

How on earth do these f*ckwits get elected?

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Because f*ckwits vote for them.

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IDFIMH

Maybe it's not just the gun laws that need looking, perhaps there's problem with the job

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Didn't both of these people legally own firearms?

That being the case, I would assume legally buying ammunition wouldn't have been a problem for either?

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

At the end of the day, even if this chap didn't have guns he probably would have still killed them another way. Just before Christmas there was an incident in our town where an ex police inspector killed his wife and one of his children and severely injured his other 2 children before killing himself. He didn't have a gun he used a knife.

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Grandad,

A gun's always likely to be more lethal though.

Im no Medical expert but I bet theres more Deaths and Injurious health problems in Britain which arise from the misuse of over the Counter Medicines Such as Cold and Flu remedies, Aspirin, Paracetamol and the likes than there are from the Misuse of legally held Firearms.

Besides......You dont need a gun to kill several people if you throw a wobbly...you could Run them over, Go beserk with a knife, Poison a water supply etc, Set fire to a building, the list is only limited by your imaginative ways.......So why pick on the 99.9999% of responsible gun owners.

I have to say that incidents like this are becoming increasingly common this is one of the densely populated countries in the world and getting worse perhaps that has a lot to do with it life in the UK is getting more claustrophobic every day people are coping with it less and less

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

If a gun is lethal and a knife is lethal - they are equally lethal.

If you meant "Using a gun is more likely to be lethal than a knife" I would have agreed with you.

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Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related

I think it depends on the type of gun it is

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Depends on the knife and how it's weilded as well

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Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related

Yes, well what I was getting at was that the likes of the Thomas Hamilton and Derrick Bird-style mass killings wouldn't have happened on the scale they did if they'd been armed merely with knives.

What I was getting at was that in the domestic situation where a man has made the decision that he is going to kill his family and himself, it doesn't matter if he has a gun or a knife. The outcome is the same.

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Grandad,

Yes, I see what you're getting at Grandad, and in many such circumstances I would agree.

On the other hand I suspect that in certain circumstances it might be possible to curtail the extent of the violence if a knife is used rather than a gun, for example a Thomas Hamilton-type scenario on a much smaller scale.

Most obviously, if it was the wife rather than the husband perpetrating the attack then the husband and/or kids would be in a better position to curtail it if the wife was armed with knife rather than a gun.

Of course, that could also be the case if the husband was doing the attacking, although in most such scenarios the wife and/or kids would usually be less physically able to fight back.

Of course, all this is just generalising, and it would all depend on the precise circumstances of the attack.