Dunblane massacre

Lord Cullen's public inquiry into the shootings, reported October 1996 This is the case where government went past its inquiry. Cullen examined the shootings at Dunblane Primary School on March 13, 1996 and proposed tighter handgun controls, but stopped short of an outright ban. When the report reached the Commons on October 16, 1996, Home Secretary Michael Howard said he would go considerably further: all handguns out of people's homes and high-caliber handguns outlawed. A second Act in November 1997 then extended the prohibition to small-caliber pistols. It is a useful reminder that an inquiry's recommendations set a floor for reform, not a ceiling.