THE massacre at Dunblane was carried out with the use of four handguns - weapons that are among hundreds of thousands of legally and illegally held firearms in Britain.
The use of firearms in another murder comes amid police warnings of a growing gun culture in the UK. Nine people were shot dead in 1994 and police recorded about 13,000 offences in which firearms were used. In 1994 there were 140,200 certificates issued for firearms and 670,000 for shotguns. Estimates of illegally held firearms vary from 500,000 to over a million.
Critics say it is still too easy for anyone to obtain a licence for a firearm to be used in a gun club and the Firearms' Consultative Committee, which advises the government, has recommended that more should be done to stop psychologically disturbed people obtaining firearms.
Currently applicants for certificates have to satisfy the police that they will not be used to endanger the public. Anyone with a criminal record or who is considered to be mentally unstable is likely to be barred.
The laws on the possession of firearms were toughened after Michael Ryan killed 16 people in Hungerford before shooting himself.
The Firearms Act 1988 has forced anyone seeking a licence for a firearm, other than a shotgun, to provide a good reason to the police for wanting a weapon. Certain guns, such as self loading rifles and pump action rifles, were banned. In 1994 the maximum sentence for the illegal possession of a firearm was increased from three to five years.
Despite these changes, the police believe there has been a steady increase in the number of people willing to turn to guns for power and violence. Sir Paul Condon, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, recently told the Home Affairs Select Committee about his fears of an emerging gun culture among teenage gangs.
Many weapons are being brought in from eastern Europe, with wars in places such as the former Yugoslavia providing a ready supply.
Police chiefs and the Home Office are considering a national guns amnesty to try to reduce the number of illegally held arms. In the last amnesty, after Hungerford, 48,000 firearms were surrendered.
The guns industry estimates there are 400,000 unlicensed handguns and 120,000 rifles. The police have estimated that there are up to 190,000 illegal pumpaction shotguns.
Dunblane follows rising concern over violence in and around schools. In December a head teacher, Philip Lawrence, was stabbed to death outside his school in West London as he tried to help one of his pupils who was being attacked.
In 1994 a man armed with a replica gun and a knife burst into a classroom at Hall Garth School, Middlesbrough, Cleveland, and stabbed to death a 12 year old girl and wounded two others. Stephen Wilkinson (31), was jailed for life in December for manslaughter.
The Dunblane massacre follows a well established pattern involving lone gunmen. Similar apparently random killings have occurred throughout the world over the past decade. In New Zealand in 1990, 11 people were shot dead in Aramoana, which has a population of just 90.
In September last year, 16 people were killed in the southern French town of Cuers when a French teenager ran amok with a rifle. Eric Borel (16), who committed suicide after the killings, had argued with his parents over where he should live.
In June of the same year a 24 year old army shooting instructor killed seven people, including five women, in the central Swedish town of Falun.
In December 1993 a gunman walked through the aisle of a packed rush hour commuter train in Garden City, just outside New York City, and randomly shot at passengers, killing four people and wounding at least 17 others.
Five months earlier, a man carrying two semi automatic weapons, a handgun and a bag with hundreds of bullets walked into a law firm in San Francisco and opened fire, killing nine people. He then shot himself.
A man armed with an automatic weapon slammed his truck into a Texas cafeteria 1991 in the town of Killeen and opened fire on the lunch time crowd, killing 23 people. The gunman then went into a toilet and killed himself.