
“We want you to know that change can happen,” the letter reads. “Never let anyone forget. There will be attempts to deflect you, to divide you and doubtless to intimidate you, but you’ve already shown great wisdom and strength.
On 13 March 1996, 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton entered Dunblane Primary School and killed 16 children aged five and six, as well as their 45-year-old teacher, Gwen Mayor, before shooting himself dead. The guns and ammunition used in the shooting were all legally purchased.
“The gunman owned his four handguns legally, and we knew it had been too easy for him to arm himself with lethal weapons. Like you, we vowed to do something about it. We persuaded British lawmakers not to be swayed by the vested interests of the gun lobby, we asked them to put public safety first and to heed what the majority of the British people wanted.”
The massacre was a watershed moment for gun control laws in the UK, sparking “nationwide mourning and a furious debate about gun control that pitted grieving families against conservative politicians and a powerful gun lobby”, Buzzfeed reports.
Just over a year later, handguns were outlawed in Britain under the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997.
There has never been another school shooting in the UK!

I walked this path everyday for a week last summer in this peaceful village in Scotland.
It was unbeknownst to me that there had been a tragic shooting and it seemed completely implausible when I learned about it in the memorial chapel for children inside the beautiful Dunblane Cathedral.

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