Dunblane families join f ight over US gun laws
THE brother of a five-yearold girl killed in the Dunblane massacre will today support US campaigners as they call for new gun control laws.
Jack Crozier, 24, whose sister Emma was killed by gunman Thomas Hamilton in the 1996 tragedy, will speak at March for Our Lives: Edinburgh.
More than 1,000 people are expected to gather at the city’s US Consulate to protest at ‘the lack of action and lack of empathy by those regulating gun laws in America right now’.
The rally is one of many around the world, including events in London, Belfast and Dublin; more than half a million people are expected to march on the White House.
Campaigners will demand tougher American gun laws in the wake of the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people were killed.
Following the incident, families affected by the Dunblane tragedy – when 16 P1 pupils and their teacher were murdered – recorded a video message of solidarity.
Mr Crozier, who was only two in March 1996, said yesterday: ‘The event is incredibly close to my heart – and to everyone’s from Dunblane. It’s obviously a cause that we are all so close to, so this is a really good way for us all to show our support.
‘There are quite a few of us from Dunblane who are going to be speaking at it. It’s a message of hope: “We did it here – and you can do it too”.’
He insisted there was a new sense of optimism after previous US school shootings failed to bring about reform, adding: ‘The reaction always seems to be the same, it’s always a call for change, thoughts and prayers and then zero action. This time it seems completely different.
‘This time it’s the students that are standing up; this time the people who are being directly affected by this – the people that are being attacked in their schools – are standing up and they are saying: “This is never to happen again”. In the past, we have always felt dejected that change isn’t going to come. This time, we feel change is definitely going to happen.’
Alison Ross, whose five-year-old sister Joanna was murdered in Dunblane, will also speak at the Edinburgh event.
Organiser Jennifer Payne, who is from Michigan but now lives in Glasgow, told Radio Scotland: ‘We wanted to stand together as a common cause and do something to show solidarity with the students of Parkland – and to encourage meaningful gun reform throughout the United States from Scotland.’