Plymouth shooting

On 12 August 2021, a mass shooting occurred in Keyham, Plymouth, England. Jake Davison, a 22-year-old apprentice crane operator, had a physical altercation with his mother, Maxine, at their home on Biddick Drive, during which he reportedly grabbed her by the throat. Maxine contacted her sister, who called 999. Between 18:05 and 18:08 BST, Davison shot and killed his mother with a legally owned pump-action shotgun. He then left the house and killed a 3-year-old girl and her 43-year-old father in the street. He shot through the front door window of a neighbouring house, injuring a 53-year-old woman and her 33-year-old son, then shot and killed a 59-year-old man in a nearby park. He walked to Henderson Place, where at 18:13 he fatally wounded a 66-year-old woman outside a hairdresser's, telling a passing resident there was "nothing to worry about, mate." After entering a parking garage and verbally threatening members of the public without firing, he returned to Henderson Place and, at 18:23, shot himself dead as further police arrived.

Devon and Cornwall Police and the South Western Ambulance Service were alerted at 18:11 and 18:12 respectively, and officers reached the scene within six minutes, establishing thirteen crime scenes. The 66-year-old victim died later at Derriford Hospital; the two injured survivors sustained significant but non-life-threatening injuries.

Davison had been diagnosed with autism and ADHD as a child and had a documented, long-standing interest in firearms, raised as a concern by a careers counselling organisation as early as 2016. He applied for a shotgun certificate in 2017, disclosing autism and Asperger syndrome, and was licensed from 2018. His shotgun and licence were removed in December 2020 following an assault allegation but returned in early July 2021 — a month before the shooting — through a police deferred-caution scheme. Davison posted YouTube videos referencing "inceldom" and nihilism, and was active on incel- and gun-related Reddit forums; his Reddit account was suspended a day before the shooting over inappropriate messages to a 16-year-old user. He had reportedly used anabolic steroids and had grown estranged from his mother partly over disputes about his views on women.

An inquest opened on 19 August 2021 and, on 20 February 2023, a jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing for all victims. The inquest found that Devon and Cornwall Police's Firearms Licensing Office had operated with a "dangerously unsafe culture" and had gone twenty years without training firearms officers. The senior coroner, Ian Arrow, found a serious failure by police in granting and failing to revoke Davison's licence, and called for reform of UK gun laws. The Independent Office for Police Conduct investigated the force's handling of the licence and, in October 2021, issued disciplinary notices to two officers. The UK government announced it would update firearms licensing guidance, including requiring police to consider applicants' social media activity, and the National Police Chiefs' Council announced a national training programme for firearms officers to be introduced by 2024.