A massacre in a Scottish kindergarten has awakened a national debate over gun ownership, prompting some Britons to call for a ban on weapons altogether.
Politicians, newspapers and private citizens are questioning the effectiveness of the country's gun laws - which include controls such as police checks and character references - if a resentful outcast like Thomas Hamilton could legally purchase firearms."We must take this as a warning that we are becoming like America and act before it is too late," said governing Conservative Party legislator David Mellor.
Many people are urging that Britain's already rigorous gun control laws be tightened. And some legislators in London as well as parents in this traumatized town now want a total ban on handguns.
On Wednesday, Hamilton took two .357 revolvers and two 9mm pistols - all legally owned - walked into Dunblane's elementary school and massacred 16 kindergarten children and their teacher before killing himself.
Hamilton, 43, obsessed by guns and running boys' clubs and enraged by local suspicions he was a homosexual pedophile, had been licensed to own guns since 1977.
Relatively few people in Britain own guns. Most police are armed only with batons, and gun-related crimes are rare.
Owners of rifles, shotguns and handguns must have certificates issued by police chiefs. To get them, they must be judged to have a good reason to own a gun and to pose no threat to the public. Anyone who has served three or more years in jail is forbidden to have to gun.
Applicants must disclose any form of mental illness and they must also be recommended by a professional person who has known them for at least two years.
But few people who apply - only 1 percent in 1994 according to official figures - are refused licenses.
Hamilton, who has also owned two rifles, apparently never had a problem getting licensed to own weapons.
A judicial inquiry will now question police on why they regularly renewed Hamilton's license. Police had complaints from parents about Hamilton's behavior toward their children, but he had a clean police record.
Legislator Alex Carlisle says applicants should undergo psychological tests.
"To use a gun is not a right," Carlisle said. "To take proper steps to avoid the disastrous misuse of guns is a duty of government and of every sensible citizen."
Others have called for gun owners to be prohibited from keeping their weapons at home.