On 13th March 1996, Thomas Hamilton went to Dunblane Primary School, killing 16 children, 1 teacher and himself with a gun. There were also 15 non fatal injuries.

This is a story I've heard countless times and it's one that everybody knows. You say the word Dunblane and everybody knows exactly what you're talking about. It's the primary school with the shooting. It's one of the most horrific things that has happened and it has had an incredible effect.

Back in school, we would hear the story of Dunblane many times. Probably at least once a year, there would be a school assembly where the head teacher would recount the events of Dunblane. Sometimes it would be an account of one of the teachers. Sometimes another member of staff. Sometimes it would even be an account of one of the pupils. The details never changed. Scared people fearing for their lives. Scared people living through a horrific event. Every time the story was told, it would still give you chills. It still to this day has a shocking effect on me. How could something like this ever happen?

As an American reading this, you might be a little confused. Why the emphasis on Dunblane? It was a school shooting sure but what makes it truly horrible? Why is it so important and so special to talk about?

Dunblane is the only school shooting to take place in the UK. Ever. In its entire history.

After Dunblane, there was a large political debate. Parents, people and politicians all wanted to do something. And they did. Whilst many called for an outright ban on gun ownership, the government eventually decided to greatly restrict private ownership of guns instead. That's right, the government passed a law to tightening gun control. Shudder in horror Americans, we would no longer be able to protect ourselves. We were now all at risk because we didn't have guns.

It took 1 shooting to figure it out. Guns kill people. Fewer guns means fewer shootings. Fewer shootings means fewer deaths. How is a gun supposed to protect you anyway? How does a gun protect you from another gun? A gun only works if you fire first and if someone has the intention of going to a place and shooting people, you can bet that they are the ones firing first and no gun is going to protect you from that.

I didn't want to be negative in this book again but this is too important to ignore. There is no debate and it can't be left unsaid. The UK has had 1 school shooting in its entire history. The US has had 7 school shootings in 2018.

Don't stand there and say the UK is a small country so there are bound to be less shootings. The population of the UK is about 1/5 that of the US. In theory, we would have 1/5 the amount of shootings.

Don't stand there and say that some US shootings don't have fatalities. 1 fatality is too damn many. How many people have to die? How many families have to be affected before something is done about it?

What's going to happen after the Parkland shooting? I'll tell you what's already happened. It's been added to the Wikipedia page of School Shootings in the US. It's very very very very very very very far down the list so it'll likely be forgotten until the next shooting happens in a few weeks.

It might interest you to know that the UK doesn't have a Wikipedia page for school shootings. Because we've only had 1 in our ENTIRE HISTORY.

It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. Something MUST be done. Whether that's a restriction an outright ban or anything, it doesn't matter. You cannot sit there and let people be shot. It is not normal. It should not be normal. In the US it is normal.

The events of Dunblane still shock me. The events of Parkland do not. The events of Parkland don't shock anybody. It has become normal for people to go to schools and murder people with legally purchased firearms. Dunblane changed the UK forever. Parkland has already been forgotten.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Great_Britain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shootings_in_the_United_States

This article is in response to Sheare .