UK MP Lowe sparks outrage by calling Dunblane 'one murder'
A British MP's dismissal of the 1996 Dunblane massacre to a US audience has triggered condemnation, highlighting a fringe push to challenge Europe's strictest firearms laws.
Rupert Lowe, the leader of Restore Britain, has faced calls to apologise after describing the 1996 Dunblane school shooting as "one murder" during an appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast. Lowe made the remark while criticising the UK's ban on handguns. When host Rogan sought clarification that the ban resulted from "one murder", the MP for Great Yarmouth confirmed that was his understanding.
The reality of the 1996 atrocity starkly contrasts with Lowe's characterisation. Gunman Thomas Hamilton entered Dunblane Primary School armed with four legally-owned handguns and 743 rounds of ammunition. In less than four minutes, he murdered sixteen children and their teacher, Gwen Mayor, while wounding another twelve children and three adults. Almost all the children killed were five or six years old.
The massacre prompted the Snowdrop Campaign, leading the UK to enforce some of the strictest firearms legislation in the world. Lowe's attempt to reframe the tragedy represents a striking departure from the political consensus on public safety that has defined British and European gun policy for three decades. He told the US audience that his father's pistols were confiscated following the shooting, arguing that British society required "radical change" and needed to "release the individual".
A spokesperson for Restore Britain sought to defuse the backlash by stating: "Rupert was clearly referring to one incident." This explanation did little to satisfy the victims' families or political figures. Kenny Ross, whose daughter Joanna was killed in the attack, said he was not surprised by the "ignorance of some people". "They don't realise how devastating it was. But now we have a safer society because there is no longer private gun ownership," Ross told BBC Scotland News. "Thirty years have passed and people forget what we had to go through. I wouldn't want anyone else to go through that. It's people like him that are very ignorant and selfish."
The criticism crossed party lines. Conservative MSP Stephen Kerr called the remarks "astonishingly insensitive and profoundly disrespectful to the victims". "To describe Dunblane as 'one murder' is not simply inaccurate — it diminishes one of the darkest days in Scotland's modern history," Kerr said. He added that speaking so casually about an event causing profound pain was "callous and indefensible". Local MSP Keith Brown went further, labelling Lowe "a stain on our politics" and calling the comments "beyond despicable".
Brown noted that despite the MP's remarks, the handgun ban remains the "proud legacy" of the bereaved families. Lowe founded Restore Britain after being suspended from Reform UK last March following allegations he made threats of physical violence against the party's then chairman, Zia Yusuf. The Crown Prosecution Service ultimately found insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction.
