I do not understand why this guy was allowed a firearms license.
They even rescinded it after he got into legal trouble after an altercation, but gave it back to him because he attended an 'anger management course'. Clearly that course was not very successful.
That his victims included a 3 year-old girl and her father, is too horrible to think about.
I dunno about the debate as to whether it's "terrorism" or not. I don't really know why that matters. The 'type' of person who does this seems pretty similar whether they are nominally an 'Islamist' or an 'far right angry white man' or an 'incel'. They all seem almost interchangeable to me, regardless of what ideological dress-up games they play.
There's usually misogyny involved, for one thing.
Reports did mention he was a 'Trump supporter', and also a 'libertarian', and also allegedly had autism. All three of those seem to be relevant.
The most critical thing to me seems to be that he had a gun. If he hadn't had that shotgun this would not have happened, no matter how odious his ideas or damaged his personality. I suspect having that gun actively fed his violent fantasies - its also been reported he was really into guns and had specific ones he wished he could get.
After Hungerford, which involved a Kalashnikov modified to single-shot, they banned semi-auto rifles, then Dunblane happened, with handguns, so then they banned them. So of course this time it's a shotgun.
I just don't get why each time they only increase restrictions by the minimum degree necessary to prevent exactly the horror that just happened, but no further. Now they've declared that anyone applying for a shotgun licence will have to let the authorities check their social media accounts, which seems to me like just a continuation of that 'do the absolute minimum' trend, because in this case the stuff he posted made it clear he was dangerous. But the next guy might not be so open about it.
Instead, surely, they should just ban shotguns, no licences to be issued, unless someone can actively _prove_ both that they need one (for pest control, is the only thing I can think of) and that they are entirely well-balanced and responsible.
www.bbc.co.uk
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