A report on the massacre, commissioned by Home Secretary Douglas Hurd, found that understaffing and telecommunication problems may have hampered the police response to the developing incident.

The killings were committed using legally owned handguns and semi-automatic rifles, and the report stated that existing firearms legislation should be more stringent.

Consequently, the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 was passed in the wake of the massacre, banning ownership of semi-automatic centre-fire rifles and restricted the use of shotguns with a capacity of more than three cartridges.

On the morning of Wednesday 19 August 1987, 27-year-old Michael Ryan drove his silver Vauxhall Astra GTE to Savernake Forest, Wiltshire, seven miles (11 km) to the west of his hometown of Hungerford.

They were at that point unaware of the murder in Savernake Forest,[4]: 6  which had been responded to by officers from Wiltshire Police, and there were initially two manhunts underway.

[3]: 172  At this time, approximately 12:50, police had linked the incident in Froxfield to the many calls they received in Hungerford and instead focused on South View.

[3]: 172  Ryan returned to South View from the common, and the first police officers to arrive aimed to close both ends of the road to contain a possible gunman.

[4]: 6 [3]: 172  Ryan next fired at the two-person crew of an ambulance that was responding to 999 calls on South View; both escaped without major injury.

[3]: 173  The officer, PC Jeremy Wood, set up a makeshift command post on the common, approximately 500 yards (460 m) from South View.

[3]: 173  Ryan then walked to the junction of South View and Fairview Road, where he used the Type 56 to shoot and kill 84-year-old Abdur[a] Khan who was tending his garden.

[3]: 174  On South View, Ryan's mother Dorothy, who had been out shopping and running errands,[4]: 5 [3]: 166  returned in her car to see Michael armed; she shouted for him to stop before he shot her four times, twice at point-blank range.

[b][3]: 174 [12]: 7  On heading towards the common, a resident of a parallel street shouted at Ryan to "kindly stop that racket"; he responded by shooting her in the groin.

Approximately 100 yards (90 m) from their destination, Ryan shot Douglas dead and injured Kathleen before non-fatally shooting at two other drivers.

[3]: 179  Standing near Priory Avenue's junction with Tarrants Hill, Ryan shot at a van, killing Eric Vardy.

[4]: 6 [3]: 180 After shooting Hill, Ryan forced his way into a house further down Priory Road and shot the occupants, 66-year-old Jack Gibbs and his 62-year-old wife Myrtle.

[4]: 6  He then continued south on Priory Road where he shot once at a car driven by 34-year-old Ian Playle, who was fatally struck in the neck.

[4]: 11  Ryan's precise location after the shooting at 13:45 had been unknown as there had been no confirmed sightings,[4]: 7  but at approximately 17:26 police first saw him at the school shortly after he had thrown his Type 56 out of a third-floor window.

[4]: 11  Without knowing the full extent of Ryan's arsenal and ammunition and with the possibility of booby traps or more perpetrators, the police stayed at their positions and devised an operation to enter the building.

[4]: 11  At 20:00 the plan was enacted, and at 20:10 armed police entered a barricaded room to find Ryan dead of a self-inflicted gunshot through the right temple.

[4]: 11 [3]: 184 The shootings were declared a major incident and in the immediate aftermath, TVP locked-down many areas to secure evidence and exclude press activity.

[20][21]: 37  Roger Brereton's funeral, held the following day at St Mary's Church in Shaw, Berkshire, was attended by Home Secretary Douglas Hurd.

[4]: 12  The jury in the inquest recommended to the coroner that "semi-automatic weapons should not generally be available [and] an individual should not be allowed to own an unlimited quantity of arms and ammunition.

As a result, British Telecom implemented measures to relieve stress on the telecommunications network on the evening of 19 August, freeing up communications for the police.

[4]: 10 The report suggested that although the police force helicopter was undergoing repairs and did not arrive at Hungerford until 13:45, it was likely a catalyst for Ryan to seek refuge in the school.

[4]: 3  Smith concluded that "the public [...] will demand that this tragic event is used as a catalyst for changes in both the law and administrative procedures [of gun licencing]", and that neither "legitimate sporting [nor] leisure interests" would be seriously damaged nor significantly impeded if semi-automatic firearms were prohibited from general sale.

[4]: 16 The report led to the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988, which banned the ownership of semi-automatic centre-fire rifles and restricted the use of shotguns with a capacity of more than three cartridges (in magazine plus the breech).

[25]: 252 [16] After dropping out of college, some sources state that Ryan was at one point employed as an antique dealer,[31]: 60  although this is not corroborated by the official report into the shootings.

[4]: 2  On 7 April 1987, he began employment as a labourer on a Manpower Services Commission scheme with Newbury District Council, working on footpaths and fences including at the River Thames in Reading.

Jim Higgins, a consultant forensic psychiatrist, suspected that Ryan had acute schizophrenia, describing how "matricide is the schizophrenic crime.

[2] Investigative psychologist Keith Ashcroft likened the massacre to the shootings at Dunblane in 1996 and Cumbria in 2010, stating that "the killers [were] subject to gossip and sometimes quite serious victimisation.