Dunblane parents warn against gun law complacency 30 years on from Britain’s worst mass shooting

On March 13 1996, a lone gunman shot and killed 16 pupils and their teacher in Dunblane Primary School’s gym hall before turning the weapon on himself.

A further 15 were injured in what remains the deadliest firearms atrocity ever committed in the UK.

Bereaved families in the town would go on to lead the ultimately successful Snowdrop Campaign, calling for handguns to be banned.

Kenny Ross, who lost his five-year-old daughter Joanna, believes what they achieved will have saved lives in the last three decades.

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He told LBC: "I like to think we have saved lives, definitely, because the man on the street just can't go and get a handgun anymore.

“Our aim was to not have other families going through what we went through. Which was the most horrendous thing in the world. People do lose kids but not in the brutal, brutal way that we lost kids

“Because of the campaign Britain at the moment has got some of the tightest gun control in the world, and there can be no relaxation with the laws whatsoever.

“I am absolutely (worried complacency could see standards slip). There’s a whole generation who might not be aware why the ban came in.

“The laws have got to stay as tight as they are and maybe get even tighter. There was an occasion just a few miles up the road from here, a guy with a shotgun who killed someone. So maybe they need to look at even tightening these controls.”

Mick North, who lost his five-year-old daughter Sophie, also reflected on the impact of parents’ campaigning.

He told LBC: “I think there can be no doubt at all we saved lives. Gun crime in Britain is amongst the lowest among similar countries.

:Gun crime figures have gone down since the turn of the century, and there's no doubt that the ban on handguns played a major part in that.

“It also reset things in Britain. There'd been perhaps a rather complacent attitude towards gun ownership in this country.

"It was said at the time that pistol shooting was the fastest-growing sport. This was a worrying trend towards a possible situation like America.

“I think there's always been a danger of complacency…we know from our experience in the years immediately afterwards that the gun law, we kept seeing pushes to have some reversal of the handgun ban on the basis that pistol shooting is one of the Olympic sports…but I got the impression that many of them weren't that concerned about Olympic pistol shooting.

“This was a way of getting the foot back in the door and trying to prise it open again.

"And I think there are people, I know, there are people who have, over the years, called the handgun man ludicrous, one of whom is Nigel Farage, and he is in a possible position to affect firearms laws. So that is a concern.

“We must not be complacent. We have to stay vigilant. Britain has low levels of gun crime because we have tight gun laws. They stay in place and any changes that are necessary because of new developments or whatever have to be put in place.”

A Reform UK spokesman said: "Reform UK has no plans to loosen gun laws. Nigel Farage’s previous comments referred to the impracticality of laws affecting competitive sports."