Page

Dunblane: How Britain Banned Handguns

Dunblane: How Britain Banned Handguns

Save

Summary

On March 13, 1996, Thomas Hamilton walked into the gym hall in Dunblane Primary School in Stirlingshire and shot dead 16 pupils and their teacher Gwen Mayor, seriously injuring 14 other pupils and two teachers. This documentary follows the campaign to ban private handgun ownership in the UK in the wake of the massacre, revealing how a group of ordinary people forced the government to ensure the tragedy could not happen again

Ad

Review

David Butcher

At the opening of this documentary, former PE teacher Eileen Harrild describes how the door banged open on her primary-school class one morning 30 years ago. A man came into the gym and started shooting with a pistol. He killed 16 children and one teacher, injured 15 others, including Eileen, then turned the gun on himself.

Her calm description makes the events of that morning dreadfully imaginable. Michael Forsyth — who was Scottish Secretary at the time — and his Labour shadow George Robertson recall visiting the school and seeing the gym, though the memory still makes them halt in mid-sentence.

We hear from parents of murdered five-year-olds about what they went through that morning. Safe to say, viewers with young children may want to steer clear of this, but it’s a powerful evocation of the tragedy and it develops into a moving story about the subsequent “Snowdrop” campaign for a ban on handguns. The gun lobby and many MPs opposed them. The Duke of Edinburgh spoke out against a ban. It was portrayed as a “facts” versus “emotion” debate. But they won.

How to watch

Loading

Streaming

Credits

Crew

rolenameDirectorLiz MerminExecutive producerSteve CondieExecutive producerMark Downie

Details

Languages

Formats

Colour

News & features about Dunblane: How Britain Banned Handguns

Ad

Ad

Ad