An eerily similar school shooting in 1996 is the reason why handguns are illegal in the UK. Compare:

[Poll_Blind]

On March 19, 1996, a man entered Dunblane Primary School in Scotland and shot dead one adult and sixteen children. None of the children killed were over 10 years old. As a result of the mass murder, the UK enacted strict gun control laws and made handgun ownership essentially impossible.

On December 14, 2012, a man entered the Sandy Hook Elementary School in the United States and shot dead six adults and twenty children. None of the children killed were over ten years old. As a result of the mass murder, the United States ___________________________________________________.

I was actually going to write more but I got lost in that blank line I just wrote. Do you suppose as a result of this tragedy anything will change in regard to US gun laws, even remotely?

PB

[dipsydoodle]

1. The Hungerford Massacre preceeded that

Following the Hungerford massacre here in the UK our gun laws were tightened further.

The Hungerford massacre occurred in Hungerford, Berkshire, England, on 19 August 1987. The gunman, 27-year-old Michael Robert Ryan (b. 18 May 1960), armed with two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun, shot and killed sixteen people including his mother, and wounded fifteen others, then fatally shot himself. A report on this incident was commissioned by the Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, from the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, Colin Smith. It remains, along with the 1996 Dunblane massacre and the 2010 Cumbria shootings, one of the worst criminal atrocities involving firearms in British history.

The Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 was passed in the wake of the massacre, which banned the ownership of semi-automatic centre-fire rifles and restricted the use of shotguns with a magazine capacity of more than three rounds. Ryan's collection of weapons had been legally licensed, according to the Hungerford Report.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungerford_massacre

Further changes then occurred as a result of Dunblane.

Dunblane school massacre.

The Dunblane school massacre occurred at Dunblane Primary School in the Scottish town of Dunblane on 13 March 1996. The gunman, 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton (b. 10 May 1952), entered the school armed with four handguns, shooting and killing sixteen children and one adult before committing suicide. Along with the 1987 Hungerford massacre and the 2010 Cumbria shootings, it remains one of the worst criminal acts involving firearms in the history of the United Kingdom.

Public debate subsequent to these events centred on gun-control laws, including media-driven public petitions calling for a ban on private ownership of handguns and an official enquiry, the Cullen Report. In response to this debate, the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 and the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997 were enacted, which effectively made private ownership of handguns illegal in the United Kingdom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunblane_school_massacre

[COLGATE4]

2. Not a chance in hell. Sadly.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Unicorns farting in the forest have a better chance

Sadly.