Gun control

Three weeks after Derrick Bird, the people of west Cumbria are still coming to terms with the tragedy.

But while the investigation to discover Bird's motive for the shootings on 2 June continues, Cumbria Constabulary is already looking to see what, if anything, it could have done differently to prevent the killings.

Senior officers and politicians, as well as frontline bobbies have warned against knee-jerk changes to either legislation or tactics following the massacre. However, both the killings in Hungerford in 1987 and Dunblane in 1996 led to changes in the law on firearms.

The Hungerford massacre of 1987 in which 16 people died at the hands of 27-year-old Michael Ryan led to big changes in firearms legislation. Ryan had used two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun to kill his victims, including his mother. The killings led to a ban on semi-automatic large bore rifles and brought in restrictions on the magazine capacity of repeating shotguns held on normal certificates.

After Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and one adult before taking his own life at a local primary school on 13 March 1996, firearms legislation was changed again under the Firearms Amendment Act 1997 to ban high-calibre handguns greater than .22 calibre and all cartridge ammunition handguns, regardless of calibre.