Meeting of the Parliament 12 March 2026 [Draft]
There is a photo of the primary 1 class at Dunblane primary school in 1996, and it is a picture of pure childhood innocence. It features teacher Gwen Mayor beaming with pride and cheeky wee smiles on the faces of her young pupils.
On 13 March, 1996, they were visited by evil. After three minutes of gunfire, Gwen and 16 of her pupils lay dead. I remember—we all remember—where we were on that spring day. News bulletins stopped us in our tracks. How could any parent bear the endless agony of such loss?
Dunblane became synonymous with tragedy, but the town’s tears of sorrow turned to anger and then to action. Parents, politicians and ordinary folk from across Britain demanded that there never be another Dunblane, and they meant it. Handguns were banned; lives were saved; and they continue to be saved.