Prayers for victims of gun death horror
PRAYERS have been said for the five victims of the Plymouth shooting as the community comes together in mourning.
A church in Keyham close to the scene used a Sunday service to remember those killed on Thursday, while a special prayer has been written by the Bishop of Exeter.
It came as questions continue to mount over how gunman Jake Davison, 22, obtained a firearms licence and carried out his spree before turning the gun on himself.
Father David Way, parish priest at St Thomas’ Church in Keyham, told the PA news agency after the service: “Those people who have died, we have to keep those in our prayers, but also the loved ones which have been left behind.
“I’m hoping we can break any cycle of anger, as it were, and bring a cycle of love for everybody involved.”
During the service, he asked the congregation to pray for the five victims, Maxine Davison, Lee Martyn, Sophie Martyn, Kate Shepherd and Stephen Washington, adding: “We pray also for peace for Jake.”
The service came as a former Metropolitan Police chief said officers should trawl through social media accounts of people applying for firearms licences to ensure that “guns do not fall into the hands of dangerous people”.
Former commissioner Lord Stevens told The Sunday Telegraph that Davison was “clearly a dangerous man”, adding: “The videos he made should have been taken into account when he applied for a shotgun licence.
“There needs to be a trawling of online content for an in-depth assessment of who these people are and what they think.”
However, Devon and Cornwall Police Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer said that officers did not look at internet usage when returning firearms licences as it would be an “invasion of privacy”, according to the Sun newspaper.
The Liberal Democrats accused Home Secretary Priti Patel of dragging her feet over advice to tighten the rules on issuing firearms and shotgun licences.
The party said Ms Patel had so far failed to act on recommendations in a Home Office consultation document calling for new suitability checks before a licence is awarded despite warnings of “fundamental gaps” in the system.
A Tory source hit back accusing the Liberal Democrats of “playing politics” just days after the killings.
Luke Pollard, Labour MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said there was a “sense of anger” among residents at how the events of the atrocity unfolded.
He told BBC Breakfast: “I think people’s emotions have changed from shock and disbelief into now feeling that profound loss of the five people who were killed.
“But also a sense of anger. Wanting to know the questions as to how was this allowed to happen, why did this happen and were there opportunities to stop this happening that were not taken?”