Scotland - 20 Year Anniversary of Dunblane tragedy memorial thread, 1996

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Dunblane tragedy where 16 young innocent primary school children and their highly regarded and well liked class teacher where shot and killed by a loner evil gun man in Dunblane, Scotland.

I was 11 in 1996 when this tragedy occurred and was in school at the time when it happened. The magnitude of how this event affected people that day and for months after is very difficult to describe. I remember people being very upset and crying for days and others were stunned and emotionally numb unable to comprehend what had happened. People all over the world were shocked, horrified and upset.

It wasn't till after school and the news was on and I saw how upset my mum was that it hit me and I became very upset. I remember being fearful of going to school for a long time after it happened. The tragedy resulted in Scottish Schools having secure entry installed.

I wanted to create a memorial thread for the anniversary to remember the victims.

The 17 victims of the Dunblane massacre were:
•
Gwen Mayor, 45, teacher of Primary One
•
Victoria Clydesdale, 5
•
Emma Crozier, 5
•
Melissa Currie, 5
•
Charlotte Dunn, 5
•
Kevin Hasell, 5
•
Ross Irvine, 5
•
David Kerr, 5
•
Mhairi McBeath, 5
•
Brett McKinnon, 6
•
Abigail McLennan, 5
•
Emily Morton, 5
•
Sophie North, 5
•
John Petrie, 5
•
Joanna Ross, 5
•
Hannah Scott, 5
•
Megan Turner, 5

May they Rest in Peace

It was the most horrendous time GR. You mentioning seeing how upset your mother was, choked me. My little one was 5 and was so upset at all the distress around her. It caused a lot of anxiety with the little ones, but the schools were all wonderful in dealing with it. A lot changed that day.

I knew the Grandad of little Emily, a friend is related to Ron Taylor, the Principal at the time.

Bless their little hearts, and Gwens, always. Thank you. :heartbeat:

What a horrible day that was. Truly shocking. IIRC the gun was purchased in York? I felt ashamed of my home city even though I know I had no reason to, but still

RIP :rose:

Always remembered

I watched the program about it yesterday, cried the whole way through.

We have to be thankful that our gun laws changed forever as a result of this tragedy, the first school shooting we suffered, and the last. Handguns were banned across the whole of the UK within 2 years and we have not had a school shooting since. Or in fact many other shootings.

Here's a list of UK massacres which includes only 3 major shooting sprees EVER - Hungerford 1987, Dunblane 1996 and Cumbria 2010. It sickens me whenever it happens in other parts of the world and I'm so glad we don't have a gun culture here.

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

The photo of Gwen Mayor's class has haunted me ever since.

Also in 1996 was the awful spree in Port Arthur, Tasmania. In the UK and Aus, these two massacres changed gun laws significantly, as CoverMeCagney says.

My memories of watching the Dunblane coverage, and the public response and outrage are in sharp contrast to the coverage and response here in the US after Sandy Hook.

May all the victims rest in peace.

ScotAng said:

It was the most horrendous time GR. You mentioning seeing how upset your mother was, choked me. My little one was 5 and was so upset at all the distress around her. It caused a lot of anxiety with the little ones, but the schools were all wonderful in dealing with it. A lot changed that day.

I knew the Grandad of little Emily, a friend is related to Ron Taylor, the Principal at the time.

Bless their little hearts, and Gwens, always. Thank you. :heartbeat:

Click to expand...

Yes it was a very difficult time and there was a lot of anxiety. You're right the schools did handle the situation very well the one I attended did. We tried out best to carry on at school normally but were encouraged to discuss any feelings we had.

skibaboo said:

What a horrible day that was. Truly shocking. IIRC the gun was purchased in York? I felt ashamed of my home city even though I know I had no reason to, but still

It was a terrible day it felt like the day 9/11 happened you were just in shock and disbelief as the senseless tragedy.

RIP :rose:

Always remembered

Click to expand...

CoverMeCagney said:

I watched the program about it yesterday, cried the whole way through.

We have to be thankful that our gun laws changed forever as a result of this tragedy, the first school shooting we suffered, and the last. Handguns were banned across the whole of the UK within 2 years and we have not had a school shooting since. Or in fact many other shootings.

Here's a list of UK massacres which includes only 3 major shooting sprees EVER - Hungerford 1987, Dunblane 1996 and Cumbria 2010. It sickens me whenever it happens in other parts of the world and I'm so glad we don't have a gun culture here.

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

Click to expand...

I'm pleased that hand guns were banned and something positive happened from the tragedy to help prevent a reoccurrence. I know it is a very sensitive and difficult issue in the U.S.A. America has suffered greatly with the number of school and college shootings that have occurred I can't imagine what that must be like.

Ragamuffin said:

The photo of Gwen Mayor's class has haunted me ever since.

Also in 1996 was the awful spree in Port Arthur, Tasmania. In the UK and Aus, these two massacres changed gun laws significantly, as CoverMeCagney says.

My memories of watching the Dunblane coverage, and the public response and outrage are in sharp contrast to the coverage and response here in the US after Sandy Hook.

May all the victims rest in peace.

Click to expand...

It's a very difficult photo to look at knowing so many died it's hard looking at the little ones faces knowing they never got the chance to grow up. Gwen Mayor should be alive enjoying retirement now. It's just tragic.

Sandy Hook is also a terrible tragedy it makes me very angry when I read about these people who think it didn't happen. It's a disgusting claim to make when parents have lost their child and have been left heartbroken and devastated.

CoverMeCagney said:

Here's a list of UK massacres which includes only 3 major shooting sprees EVER - Hungerford 1987, Dunblane 1996 and Cumbria 2010. It sickens me whenever it happens in other parts of the world and I'm so glad we don't have a gun culture here.

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

Click to expand...

There was another spree shooting incident that always gets forgotten, perhaps because there were "only" five deaths. It occurred in Birmingham in 1978.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/night-barry-williams-killed-five-7888180

Astonishingly, the shooter was only convicted of manslaughter and was released from Broadmoor after only 15 years before returning to Birmingham and getting married ....!

https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1370669781100158976?s=19

This day, 25 years ago, was one of the darkest and most heartbreaking in Scotland’s history. Thinking today of 16 little children, their teacher and all those who still live with the pain. They are forever in our hearts. #Dunblane

https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1370661222987800583?s=19

The brutal murder of 16 primary school children and their teacher in Dunblane 25 years ago shocked the world. We must never forget all those who lost their lives on that terrible day.

Today my thoughts are with the bereaved, the survivors, and the whole Dunblane community.

Dunblane: How the ghastly news unfolded that children had been killed 25 years ago - The Courier

There was nothing unusual about the Wednesday morning in March 1996 when I headed into work at the Scotsman building in Edinburgh city centre.

As 9am became 10am, and ideas, schedules and forward planning conferences were drawn up, nobody could imagine what was unfolding in a little school 35 miles away.

In these days, there were no Twitter feeds or WhatsApp devices to issue alerts of breaking stories – just the sound of phones ringing in the office with hints that something had happened in or around the premises of Dunblane Primary School.

The initial reports suggested there might have been a minibus crash.

Then there was the word from several members of a the public about a large police and emergency service presence descending on the town and they were all travelling in the one direction.

And eventually, during the next few hours, we were all confronted by the visceral horror of the mass murder of children and one of their teachers by an armed gunman which become everybody’s focus in an environment where everything else seemed trivial.

These incidents are mercifully rare even in the United States, where there have been several occasions, including at Virginia Tech in 2007 and Sandy Hook in 2012 when students and staff have been killed on campus in shooting tragedies.
.......