Mick North’s daughter died in the 1996 Dunblane Primary School shootings. He reflects on the campaign to ban handguns that followed and the need for ongoing vigilance to prevent gun laws being loosened

Mick North’s daughter died in the 1996 Dunblane Primary School shootings. He reflects on the campaign to ban handguns that followed and the need for ongoing vigilance to prevent gun laws being loosened

Jen Pharo, Mirror, 8 March 2026

Mick North’s daughter was just five when she was gunned down at school in a massacre that killed 16 children and their teacher. Afterwards, he campaigned to get handguns banned. Now he fears Farage could reverse it.

On Friday it is 30 years since a lone gunman walked into Dunblane Primary School, brutally murdering 16 children alongside teacher, Gwen Mayor, and injuring 15 others.

The attacker, carrying four handguns with 743 rounds of ammunition, shot five and six-year-olds in the gym hall before turning the gun on himself on March 13, 1996.

Mick North was one of the parents who lost a child that day – his clever five-year-old daughter Sophie. He says: “I would never want any parent to go through what I have gone through. I remember Sophie every day.”

Mick had lost wife Barbara to breast cancer two years before the massacre. Next week BBC documentary Dunblane: How Britain Banned Handguns will highlight how legislative decisions made in the aftermath of 1987’s Hungerford shooting led to another crime that shocked the country and devastated a community.

But after the Dunblane massacre, the grief-stricken parents and residents vowed to prevent another mass shooting, and began a campaign to ban handguns in the UK. In the days after Sophie’s death, Mick found the strength to write a press release calling for “no more guns and no more worship of guns”.

A petition for a handgun ban called The Snowdrop Campaign was founded by local mums Ann Pearston, Jacqueline Walsh and Rosemary Hunter, getting more than 705,000 signatures. But opponents argued a ban was an over-reaction to the killings. An inquiry led by Lord Cullen failed to recommend a complete ban of handguns.

Mick recalls: “I think [Prime Minister] John Major said at the time it wasn’t an issue his constituents were particularly concerned about. There was complacency among politicians. “A lot of them were shooters themselves. Then we started hearing things like, ‘Oh, you can’t change the gun laws, we can’t have a knee-jerk reaction’.”

Opposition even came from within the royals. Queen Elizabeth II visited Dunblane four days after the attack and laid flowers with Princess Anne. However, she first opened the Royal Armouries Museum, packed with guns and other weapons, two days after the UK’s deadliest firearms atrocity.

Mick refused to meet the monarch. He says: “I didn’t meet any of them, I just wanted to hide away in the house for the time, and by the time the Queen visited, I’d already got upset with her over a statement she made at the opening of the Royal Armouries Museum.”

Then Prince Philip ridiculed the campaign, saying: “If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?”

Mick established the Gun Control Network to aid the campaign for a ban on handguns. Sadly, idiots used the GCN’s PO Box address to pull off a stupid stunt. Mick recalls: “There were fake bombs sent to the Gun Control Network and the bomb disposal unit had to go around to the local sorting office in North London. The person who did it also sent fake bombs to the Labour Party as well.”

While there was high-profile opposition, the sickened public did want handguns banned. In November 1996, the Snowdrop Petition delivered more than 700,000 signatures to 10 Downing Street. Mick says: “That was what was so good about the petition. It did reflect that there was a strong public opinion, no matter what politicians were telling us.

One royal who did have sympathy with the campaign was Princess Diana, who invited the families to meet her at Kensington Palace. Worried that she would distract from the cause, Mick avoided the visit, which he now regrets. But he was later touched to receive a letter from Diana on the first anniversary of Sophie’s murder.

The Conservative government agreed to a partial handgun ban in 1997. But just months later, when Labour swept to power, Sir Tony Blair invited the campaigners to Downing Street and announced his plans to bring in a full handgun ban that year.

Speaking of the campaign’s success, Mick says: “It was incredible. The handguns were out of the owners’ hands within two years, and the legislation was through in a year and a half.”

Since the legislation was introduced, Britain has had no more handgun massacres, unlike in America, which has had a huge number of school shootings, including the devastating Sandy Hook massacre in 2012.

However, Mick fears unless we remain vigilant and remember the horror of Dunblane, our gun laws could be loosened and more innocent children might die. He was fearful when Reform leader Nigel Farage slammed our gun laws in 2014. Mick says: “Nigel Farage has said he considers the handgun ban ludicrous so if he ever gets in power there is a concern he would try and change the firearms law. I would campaign against that.”

Jen Pharo, Mirror, 8 March 2026