My daughter died in the Dunblane shooting in 1996 – here’s why we must keep resisting the gun lobby

This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.

On the morning of 13 March 1996, a man armed with four handguns and ammunition – all legally held – walked into a Scottish primary school. He used one of his pistols to kill 16 infant children and their teacher. My five-year-old daughter Sophie was one of those victims. Other children and adults were seriously injured.

Those awful events at Dunblane Primary School 30 years ago, at a time when school shootings were almost unheard of, sent shockwaves around the world. Questions were raised about the need to reform our gun laws, but would the government, with its close links to the gun lobby, take action? It seemed unlikely.

It was the people – ordinary citizens and the families of the Dunblane victims – who responded. Our campaign resulted in landmark change to Britain’s gun laws, including a total ban on the private ownership of handguns.

The story of that success is told in a new BBC documentary, in which some of us who participated in that hard-fought campaign reflect on what happened. I have no doubt that what we did has saved lives.

While school shootings occur all too often elsewhere, especially in the US, there has never been another in Britain. Tightening of firearms legislation has ensured that the level of gun violence we experience remains low in comparison with other industrialised nations.

Gun crime has decreased significantly since the turn of the century. In most recent years there have been fewer than 30 gun homicides annually in Great Britain; that’s well below the number of victims murdered with guns every day in America. Most, but sadly not all, of our children are spared the lockdown drills that have become a traumatic but routine part of US school life.

The guns used in mass shootings are almost always legally held. With the odd exception, British politicians are now happy to say how proud they are of our strict gun laws and how much they have contributed to making this a safer country. It makes no sense at all to say, as Nigel Farage did in 2014, that the handgun ban was “ludicrous”. This disturbing comment re-emerged last summer, and though a spokesman from Reform insisted that the party has "no plans to change the gun laws", there was no such reassurance from Farage himself.

There is no room for complacency. Gun enthusiasts will constantly seek out ways that make it easier to own guns. There are always new developments that are inadequately covered by existing legislation, laws that remain complex with loopholes and inconsistencies. Gun Control Network, an organisation I helped set up following Dunblane, keeps an eye on these developments and attempts to alert legislators to the issues. We aim to counter the well-funded and well-organised gun lobby, which consistently resists gun-law reforms.

There are lessons to be learnt from elsewhere. Gun laws in Australia were tightened in 1996 following a horrific mass shooting at Port Arthur, Tasmania. But over the years the commitment to public safety declined and licensing processes had become lax, making it easier, for example, to acquire multiple firearms legally. The shooting at Bondi Beach last December raised significant concerns about how much some of these laws had been weakened, often through gun-lobby pressure. It had taken another tragedy to prompt a review. We must not let that happen here.

As we reflect, 30 years later, on the Dunblane tragedy and the changes it led to, I urge that all legislators, current and future, remain vigilant. We need lawmakers who can be trusted to put public safety above the vested interests of a noisy shooting lobby. Please don’t wait for the next tragedy before taking all necessary further measures, don’t leave it for more victims’ families to have to campaign for change, and never ever risk another tragedy by weakening our laws. Tough gun laws will always save lives.

Dunblane: How Britain Banned Handguns will air on Tuesday, 10 March at 9pm on BBC Scotland and on Thursday, 12 March at 9pm on BBC Two.

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