User:Road Wizard/Sandbox

The Firearms (Amendment) Acts of 1997 were two separate Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that tightened existing gun controls within Great Britain. They were introduced in the aftermath of the Dunblane massacre of March 1996, where a lone gunman killed 16 children and their teacher. The first Act was made by John Major's Conservative government, while the second Act was made after the 1997 general election by Tony Blair's Labour government.

Dunblane massacre
On 13 March 1996, unemployed former shopkeeper and former Scout leader Thomas Watt Hamilton walked into the Dunblane Primary School in the Scottish town of Dunblane armed with two 9 mm Browning HP pistols and two Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolvers. After gaining entry to the school, he made his way to the gymnasium and opened fire on a class of five- and six-year-olds, killing or wounding all but one person. Fifteen children and a teacher, Gwen Mayor, died at the scene. He then left the gymnasium for a short period, firing several more times and injuring one teacher, before returning to the gym and committing suicide. A sixteenth child was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

Committee Inquiry and Cullen report
On 21 March 1996, the House of Commons and the House of Lords together passed a motion to appoint a tribunal of inquiry to investigate the circumstances of the incident at Dunblane Primary School. Later the same day, the Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Forsyth, appointed the Honourable Lord Cullen to hold the inquiry.

The first bill
The first bill was introduced to parliament by the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, on 31 October 1996.

The election
In a survey conducted by the Gun Control Network in the months before the election, 97% of Labour candidates stated their support for a complete ban compared to 86% of Liberal Democrats and 29% of Conservatives. However, it should be noted that only 6% of Conservative candidates responded to the survey compared to a response rate of 30% for the other two parties.

The second bill
On 19 May 1997, in his first speech to Parliament as the newly appointed Home Secretary, Jack Straw reiterated Labour's promise to allow a free vote on the ban of handguns. The second bill was formally introduced to parliament on 22 May 2007.