3 – Dunblane, United Kingdom
Michael Ryan’s crimes in Hungerford had produced a massive wave of public opinion against guns in the United Kingdom, but the final push towards the near total prohibition that exists today would come after the events of March 13, 1996, in the small Scottish town of Dunblane.
Dunblane lies close to Stirling in the centre of Scotland’s Central Belt, the area between Glasgow and Edinburgh that is home to the majority of the population. It fits all the stereotypes: small, sleepy, a commuter town that served the big cities with little of note to identify it from any of the other similar settlements nearby. If it has any claim to fame aside from the Dunblane Massacre, it would be that it is the hometown of tennis superstar Andy Murray, who was actually present during the incident and had been part of a youth group that was organised by the perpetrator, Thomas Hamilton. Now, the name Dunblane is etched on the public consciousness in the United Kingdom as the location of the country’s worst ever mass shooting and moreover, a shooting that specifically targeted children. It represents a level of horror that is unfathomable for most.
Thomas Hamilton, who would commit the massacre, was known to police, but there was little to suggest that he would carry out the acts that he did. He had been active in youth movements such as the Scouts and parents had made allegations against him regarding his conduct with young boys that saw him removed from contact with children. In 1974 he had been removed from his position within the Scouts due to misconduct and barred from the organisation and was in constant conflict with local authorities as he continually attempted to start new youth groups and was thwarted by police. Hamilton attributed the failure of his business to a whispering campaign against him by police and Scout leaders.
On the morning of March 13, he drove calmly to the local primary school in Dunblane. Using pistols that he bought legally – only shotguns and semi-automatic rifles had been affected by the post-Hungerford changes in legislation – he opened fire on a class of children in the Dunblane Primary School gym as they were preparing for a PE lesson. He shot their teacher dead and injured several children, before coldly executing the wounded children on the ground. He continued to walk through the school, shooting randomly at children and teachers, before turning the handgun on himself. In less than 10 minutes, Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and a teacher. All of the children were under 6 years old.
The outrage caused by the Dunblane massacre was felt around the world. A campaign, supported by parents of victims from both Dunblane and Hungerford, began to ban handguns and in 1997, two laws were passed that made it almost impossible to get any sort of gun in the United Kingdom legally. The Dunblane massacre remains to this day the most deadly mass shooting in British history – and the one that ended any public debate about gun control in the United Kingdom for good.