Thomas Hamilton (Dunblane Massacre)
The Dunblane school massacre occurred at Dunblane Primary School on 13 March 1996. The gunman, 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton (b. 10 May 1952), entered the school armed with four handguns, shooting and killing sixteen children and one adult before committing suicide. Along with the 1987 Hungerford massacre, 1989 Monkseaton shootings and the 2010 Cumbria shootings, it remains one of the deadliest criminal acts involving firearms in the history of the United Kingdom.
Public debate subsequent to these events centred on gun control laws, including public petitions calling for a ban on private ownership of handguns and an official enquiry, the Cullen Report. In response to this debate, the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 and the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997 were enacted, which effectively made private ownership of handguns illegal in the United Kingdom.
Read more about Thomas Hamilton (Dunblane Massacre): Timeline of Events, Perpetrator, Memorials, Commemoration Stone, Musical Tribute, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words thomas and/or hamilton:
“Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away.”
—Eighteenth-century English proverb, collected in Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia (1732)
“Word’s gane to the kitchen,
And word’s gane to the ha’,
That Marie Hamilton gangs wi’ bairn
To the hichest Stewart of a’.”
—Unknown. Mary Hamilton (l. 1–4)