MP Jo Cox shot and stabbed

[TheWildRumpyPumpus]

How terrifying that this can happen - not going to start speculating about how/why it's happened, but hope she pulls through.

Really tragic. Where on earth did he get the gun from?

This is so, so sad. What an appalling tragedy. Her poor family - it's unthinkable.

RIP
So sad, a terrible tragedy and senseless loss

This is truly horrific. From the comments in the news she seemed such a vibrant and committed MP. Some very touching comments by Sarah Brown. All my sympathies to her family and friends.

What a tragedy to your people and in general to the world for losing what seems to be a good politician, a rare species these days. It reinforces what I already believe, that gun laws don't actually stop gunmen killing people. BillSykes criminals are much more resourceful than society gives them credit for, this shooting reinforces what I already feel about gun control. No laws can really stop a bad guy getting a gun and using git. The guy just walked away and no one felt able to challenge him because your government in its infinite wisdom decided that "no one needs a weapon" to defend against the bad guys. I notice that they have started talking about the security of your MP's, it's interesting that the politicians want to be able to protect themselves even though the general public aren't allowed to.

Emr OK chilledwarmth

Why do all the Jo Cox threads have to be derailed?

Not much to say apart from RIP

Who's derailing it? I'm saying that it's really sad how this has happened and that this is precisely why I don't like gun control laws.

Yeah, more guns, that'll help. Go and be a lunatic somewhere else. We're trying to process a tragedy here.

Thistle, you can't try restricting my right to post condolences because I don't share your political views on guns. I am allowed to express sadness over a pointless murder just as much as you are. I may not be from your country but from what I read about this MP she seemed like one of the good politicians who really cared. Such people are becoming increasingly rare in society, so it's a great loss to not only your country but the world as a whole when they are taken from us.

I absolutely can try.

Updated statement from W Yorks Police:

"We are aware of the speculation within the media in respect of the suspect’s link to mental health services and this is a clear line of enquiry which we are pursuing.

"We are also aware of the inference within the media of the suspect being linked to right wing extremism which is again a priority line of enquiry which will help us establish the motive for the attack on Jo.

"We are keeping an open mind and I do not wish to add to the speculation as we need to ensure that we conduct a professional investigation and do not compromise the need to bring the person responsible to justice."

So not much more than yesterday.

Fuck off with your pro gun stance, this has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with that argument.

Hey Destiny, the thing is I think it does. Many mumsnetters are happy to post on a thread about American shootings with "their gun laws are to blame for this", because they think the death could have been avoided. I think the same about your country, that your gun laws are at best partly to blame for this women's death. If you hadn't stripped people of the right to defend themselves, maybe the man who tried to intervene could have done it with something that packed more of a punch, and maybe you wouldn't have one dead politician, and one citizen in hospital recovering from stab wounds.

Pausing that's pretty much all they can say. The suspect has a right to a fair and the police have to conduct a fair investigation, they can't afford to speculate.

That is such a bogus argument. We have a fraction of the amount of gun deaths the USA has, precisely because we have such strict laws here. I'm not going to get into this argument with you, pp like you are so blinkered and absolute in your views its just pointless.

How exactly have your guns stopped killings? They haven't. Did you not hear about the latest one?

Now go away. Stop capitalising on Jo Cox's death.

You would have a fraction of the gun deaths regardless of what your laws were. I'm not going to let you draw me into a gun control debate as this isn't the place for it, but what I will say is that any debate with you can't be that interesting if you decide that anyone disagreeing with you is blinkered and not worth arguing with.

Then please leave and take your pro - gun bullshit with you.

To say that a passer by who was armed could have prevented this death is bonkers. It would have been too late for Jo anyway. All that would have led to is an increased likelihood of even more deaths.

We have excellent gun control laws and hardly any deaths from guns.

The US has very lax gun control laws and many deaths from guns, including many mass shootings.

HOW can anyone justify the argument that more guns = fewer deaths?!

Hey Sucking, I'm not capitalising on Jo Cox's death, quite the opposite in fact, I'm suggesting you should make a change in the law to try and prevent things like that from happening. Which is the exact same thing I've seen hundreds of mumsnetters do on every thread where an American is shot. Some don't even bother to express sympathy, they jump straight in with "You must change your laws to stop this". While I don't agree with what they believe, I see why they post it, it's not out of malice, they honestly think that their proposals would make similar killings harder to carry out. No one accuses them of capitalising on American deaths.

Thistle I've made myself clear already that I will not let you try to stop me expressing condolences because I don't agree with your beliefs. Mrs Cox didn't represent me, I don't even live in the country she served as a politician, but from what I read she was one of those rare breeds - a politician who genuinely cared about her people, and doing the right thing. The world as a whole loses when someone like that is taken, not as much as those closer to her, definitely not as much as her family, but we all lose something as it's one less good person in the world doing good things.

If you hadn't stripped people of the right to defend themselves, maybe the man who tried to intervene could have done it with something that packed more of a punch

I didn't expect to find something to laugh at on this thread but there it is.

chilledwarmth, perhaps you should start a separate thread on gun laws then?

I'm sure there will be plenty of posters who can explain to you just how much safer we are in this country with the gun laws we currently have.

If we were a gun carrying nation, the chances are that the man who did this would not be alive now - all that we would have is speculation as to his motives.

How the hell is it "funny"? According to what I read a man tried to intervene and stop the attack but wasn't able to. If he had a weapon, maybe not even gun but at least something that packed more of a punch than relying on hand to hand confrontation, he may have been able to stop the attack. I simply don't understand the mentality you guys have. A bad guy is able to kill a politician in broad daylight and a crowd of people are helpless to do anything but watch. So do you say that people should be allowed to carry something to protect against this? No - If we do that, then bad people might use guns to kill good people, something which clearly gun control prevented from happening yesterday.

Hey MangoMoon, that is probably a good idea as I do want opinions about gun control but I don't really want to pursue it in this thread because I don't think it's the proper place. There have been multiple times in America where an attacker is restrained without being killed after attacking a politician, so not sure why you think he wouldn't be alive now.