BRITAIN could see another massacre like that at Dunblane a decade ago because of the failure to set up a national gun register, a police chief warned yesterday.
As relatives of the victims prepared to mark today's tenth anniversary of the tragedy, Sir Chris Fox, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said complacency about our firearms legislation would be "foolish".
He said tightening gun laws had made a similar bloodbath "far more unlikely", but progress towards a national gun register had "not been as quick as it could be".
Sixteen children and their teacher were killed on 13 March, 1996 when Thomas Hamilton burst into Dunblane Primary School gym and opened fire, before shooting himself.
Mr Fox said: "People get access to weapons and become rogue in the way they behave, and they are very difficult to track."
But he added: "People registered as firearms owners have to go through a very stringent vetting process, which has been revamped since Dunblane."
Families of the Dunblane massacre victims will mark the anniversary privately today, lighting candles in memory of their loved ones.
A spokesman for the victims' families said: "We will be lighting candles, as we have done every year, and will recall with great affection how so many people in Dunblane and beyond also lit candles on the first anniversary to show that our children and their teacher were not forgotten. We hope they will be remembered on this tenth anniversary."
The massacre in the small Stirlingshire community stunned the world and led hundreds of thousands of people to sign petitions calling for a gun ban. Despite stiff opposition from the gun lobby, the government introduced tough controls a year after the tragedy.
The 1997 National Firearms (Amendment) Act banned handguns and made provision for a national firearms database to be set up.
Source
As relatives of the victims prepared to mark today's tenth anniversary of the tragedy, Sir Chris Fox, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said complacency about our firearms legislation would be "foolish".
He said tightening gun laws had made a similar bloodbath "far more unlikely", but progress towards a national gun register had "not been as quick as it could be".
Sixteen children and their teacher were killed on 13 March, 1996 when Thomas Hamilton burst into Dunblane Primary School gym and opened fire, before shooting himself.
Mr Fox said: "People get access to weapons and become rogue in the way they behave, and they are very difficult to track."
But he added: "People registered as firearms owners have to go through a very stringent vetting process, which has been revamped since Dunblane."
Families of the Dunblane massacre victims will mark the anniversary privately today, lighting candles in memory of their loved ones.
A spokesman for the victims' families said: "We will be lighting candles, as we have done every year, and will recall with great affection how so many people in Dunblane and beyond also lit candles on the first anniversary to show that our children and their teacher were not forgotten. We hope they will be remembered on this tenth anniversary."
The massacre in the small Stirlingshire community stunned the world and led hundreds of thousands of people to sign petitions calling for a gun ban. Despite stiff opposition from the gun lobby, the government introduced tough controls a year after the tragedy.
The 1997 National Firearms (Amendment) Act banned handguns and made provision for a national firearms database to be set up.
Source