Massacres have spurred worldwide drives to change gun laws

If there’s anywhere that understands the pain of Newtown, it’s Dunblane, the town whose grief became a catalyst for changes to Britain’s gun laws.

In March 1996, 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton walked into a primary school in this central Scotland town and shot to death 16 children and their teacher with four legally held handguns. In the weeks that followed, people in the town formed the Snowdrop campaign — named for the first flower of spring — to press for a ban on handguns. Within weeks, it had collected 750,000 signatures. By the following year, the ban was law.

From Britain to Australia, mass shootings are followed by swift political action to tighten gun laws.