Just not what you expect in the UK. This is my home town, and the incident was streets away from my sister’s house. I’ve talked to her, and she and hers are safe.
If you believe the Facebook rumours, a 19 year old shot his family with a shotgun and then ran down the street, shooting as he went, before doing himself in. Numbers aren’t confirmed yet, but some are definitely dead, and some critically injured.
Give your families extra hugs tonight if you can, for those that now can’t.
Hideous! Six dead including the shooter. He shot his family. The whole country will be deeply shocked by the news of this tragedy. How did he get access to a shotgun?
That sucks hard probably had grudges and hatred against everyone …
one sad thing is the gun extremeist that rail against the UK gun laws here in the us (believe me the NRA used to have infomercials where half of it was British people saying “don’t let them do to you what they did to us” )Will say see European gun control doesn’t work we need our machine guns!
Very tragic story, no matter where it happened or to whom.
They’ve confirmed 6 dead overnight.
This sort of incident does tend to lead to tighter gun control in the UK, but it’s sort of hard to see how they could reasonably tighten it further. Shotguns are required for farmers and other rural landowners, so a total ban would be difficult.
One of the victims was a child out walking with her dad, who was also killed. A toddler, just walking back home from the shop.
It’s horrifying. Unfortunately, you can never reduce the risk of someone going crazy and killing innocent people to zero but that’s no comfort to those who have lost loved ones.
I am aware that the NRA and fellow travellers use this sort of thing to claim we need more guns in the UK, but the truth is that these events are all the more newsworthy for their rarity.
It sounds like a young man in a deep mental crisis who managed to get hold of a gun and kill his family and then go on a shoot spree randomly shooting neighbours, then himself.
The community in Plymouth will be traumatised by this. This kind of crime is very rare in the UK, but it does happen. This is the worst in ten years.
There will be questions about his access to the gun and mental health services. What could have been done to stop this kind of serious crime from happening. There are always questions.
But I guess for now it is all about the community coming together and trying to deal with the wave of anxiety and shock and dealing with the pain, the grief. Traumatic incidents can have a wide affect on lot of people, especially those who have to pick up the pieces. Dealing with the scene must be so difficult.
Plymouth is not a large place and everyone will be deeply affected, they will support each other and so will the rest of the country.
According to the BBC, the shooter had a weapons permit. He was 22, and perhaps something like an “incel”, if his social media posts are to be believed.
He shot a relative of his in his home and then went out into the street and kept shooting. Killed 5 more people and then himself.
Miserable little piece of shit should have begun at the end.
Yeah, I was just reading an article about him:
His mother. They’ve now named all the victims, including Sophie Martyn, who was three:
Plymouth has a lighthouse on the sea front that is being lit up purple tonight, and there are various services and vigils taking place this evening. At my workplace, and I hope many others in the city if not the country, we’ll be taking part in a minute silence at 11am on Monday.
Devon and Cornwall police suspended Davison’s firearms licence in December last year over concerns about his suitability to hold a weapon, but deemed him suitable to have his gun back last month. He had held a licence since 2018.
The Guardian understands Davison had to attend an anger management course to get his licence back, and months ago was classed by police as being fit again to possess the three-shot shotgun, despite earlier concerns.