Availability of weapons in Europe
The situation is beyond ridiculous. In many parts of central and eastern Europe - Czech Republic for example - every small town has a shop selling firearms. You can even buy "deactivated" automatics of many kinds as well as semi-automatic assault rifles which are trivially easy to convert to full automatic by anyone with access to a metalworking facility and the basic skills. Of course a licence is required to buy these weapons however it is easy to obtain and many people have arsenals of firearms. There are also vast numbers of legacy Soviet era military pieces in private unlicensed hands. Combine this reality with minimal or non-existent border controls and the absurdity of pretending that the sector of the population who represent the highest threat cannot be identified and these events come as no surprise. We're going to have to get used to such atrocities. I have yet to see a single "moderate muslim" representative on any of the TV news networks offer their condolences... There's a great deal more that can be said but this probably isn't the place to say it.
Edit @12.00 gmt:
Gatwick North terminal now being closed on account of a "suspicious item".
Last edited by skridlov; 14th Nov 2015 at 11:08.
Reason: additional news item