20 years after Dunblane massacre, victim's father praises 'legacy' of gun control laws

Mick North lost his five-year-old daughter Sophie in the Dunblane massacre Credit: PA

Gun control laws which have made UK streets safer are the lasting legacy of the Dunblane massacre, the father of one of the victims said as he marks 20 years since her death.

Mick North lost his five-year-old daughter Sophie when gunman Thomas Hamilton walked into her primary school on March 13, 1996, and fired more than 100 bullets into the gym and a classroom.

Fifteen of her classmates and a teacher were also killed before Hamilton turned the gun on himself.

The tragedy prompted a huge political campaign to secure a ban on handguns by the following year.

Sixteen children and a teacher were killed in the shooting Credit: PA

Speaking to the Radio Times, Mr North - who has been an anti-gun campaigner ever since - said the attack had been a watershed in Britain's attitudes towards gun ownership, helping prevent the kind of mass killings seen in the US.

Flowers laid at the scene in March 1996 Credit: PA

Speaking ahead of a BBC documentary marking the anniversary, Mr North also criticised American politicians for not taking similar action as the UK.

"School and college shootings occur with sickening regularity in the US, yet too many politicians claim that everything but gun ownership is responsible," he added.

"Their blinkered and uncritical support of gun rights means that the problem will never go away."

He said his life had changed in a "sudden, awful and irreversible way" 20 years ago - and said he hoped the anniversary would encourage others to reflect not just on the event, but on the "positive legacy" of the handgun ban.