Excerpt
13 MARCH 1996 witnessed the tragedy of the Dunblane massacre. It was to mobilisation unprecedented public support for gun control, in this country, resulting in the swift passage through Parliament of the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997, under the then Conservative government, and a further tightening of the law under the Labour government elected on 1st May 1997. Until March 1996 the worst single act of mass murder in Britain had been that of the ‘Hungerford Massacre’ where Michael Ryan killed 16 people in 1987, and although outrage over this particular tragic incident was great, the government response, in terms of legislation, was not. While a review of gun control and licensing was conducted then, the changes advocated and implemented were considered by some not to be sufficiently far-reaching and the feeling was that the government had given way to the pro-gun lobby.
This study addresses a number of issues stemming from the Dunblane tragedy. Primarily, it seeks to assess the effects of the Snowdrop Appeal in lobbying for gun control, how the campaign operated at a political level in influencing legislation and how far the resultant legislation reflected its initial demands. Such discussion raises questions concerning the extent to which the demands of a single-issue pressure group reflect societal opinion and how far the perception of either the campaign or the issues involved are manipulated by the media’s embrace of the original campaign. The Appeal gained its demands only after a change in the party of government, and also after a change in tactics to a much more aggressive and political approach. This has to be placed into context, and the group was fortunate in other events and actions conspiring to aid their cause.
Published in:
Protest Politics: Cause Groups and Campaigns, Open University Press, 1998, edited F. F. Ridley and Grant Jordan
Protest Politics offers the first analysis of the many single-issue protest campaigns that have made news headlines in recent years. All of the campaigns surveyed here fall outside the established political system; but collectively they give currency to the idea that growth in the power of single-issue groups seriously challenges our party-based democracy.
F.F. Ridley, OBE – Emeritus Professor of Politics and Senior Fellow at the Liverpool Institute of Public Administration and Management, and the Editor of Parliamentary Affairs. Grant Jordan – Professor of Politics at Aberdeen University. He has worked extensively in the fields of public policy and interest group membership and influence.
and in:
Special Edition Of Parliamentary Affairs: A Journal of Comparative Politics ‘Protest Politics: Cause Groups And Campaigns’, Volume 51, Number 3, July 1998
The article was co-authored by Lara Stancich and Lisa Dickson