Restore Britain leader calls Dunblane massacre ‘one murder’

Rupert Lowe, leader of the Restore Britain party, has sparked fury after describing the Dunblane school massacre — in which a gunman killed 16 children and their teacher in 1996 — as simply “one murder,” using it to argue against the UK’s handgun ban.

Lowe made the remarks while criticising Britain’s firearms legislation, claiming the ban on handguns was introduced “because there was a murder in Dunblane.” The comments have been widely condemned by politicians, victims’ advocates, and the public.

What Lowe actually said

Speaking in what appeared to be a policy discussion, Lowe argued that sweeping gun legislation shouldn’t be built on a single incident. “We banned handguns because there was a murder in Dunblane,” he said, a characterisation that ignores the reality that Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 five- and six-year-old pupils and their teacher, Gwen Mayor, at Dunblane Primary School on 13 March 1996, before turning the gun on himself.

It wasn’t a single murder. It was the deadliest mass shooting in British history.

Backlash comes quickly

The response was swift and damning. Critics across the political spectrum accused Lowe of trivialising one of the most traumatic events in modern Scottish history. Survivor groups and families connected to the tragedy have spent nearly three decades campaigning on gun safety, and many were left horrified by the description.

A spokesperson for a leading gun control advocacy group said: “To reduce the Dunblane massacre to ‘one murder’ is not just factually wrong — it’s a grotesque insult to every family who lost a child that day. Seventeen people were killed. The community has never fully recovered.”

So far, Lowe has not issued a correction or an apology.

The Dunblane aftermath and the law

The 1996 Firearms (Amendment) Acts, passed under both John Major and Tony Blair’s governments, banned virtually all handguns in Great Britain. The legislation came directly in response to Dunblane and was supported by a massive public petition signed by more than 700,000 people. It’s widely credited with preventing further mass shootings of the kind seen repeatedly in the United States.

Britain’s gun homicide rate currently sits at around 0.04 per 100,000 people — compared to roughly 4.12 per 100,000 in the US. The contrast is stark, and most criminologists link the difference at least partly to restrictive firearms laws.

What this means for Restore Britain

Lowe founded Restore Britain as a right-wing populist movement, positioning it as a challenger to Reform UK in the space to the right of the Conservative Party. But comments like these risk derailing any mainstream ambitions the party might have.

And with Scottish Parliament elections on the horizon in 2026, any party seen as dismissing Dunblane’s legacy will face a particularly difficult reception north of the border.

Whether Lowe walks back his remarks or doubles down, the controversy isn’t going away anytime soon.