The UK government enforced stricter gun laws two weeks after one school massacre and there hasn’t been a single school shooting since.
A Glasgow-born man named Francis Maxwell who now resides in the US has caught the attention of over 900,000 people after he shared this video recalling the first and only school shooting that happened in the UK:
“Did you know that Scotland once had a mass shooting? I was about five years old and I remember it. A gunman entered Dunblane Primary School and he killed 16 students and a teacher,” he said in his video.
“Within two weeks, the UK government got together and enacted strict gun laws.”
“Within the 26 years since they enacted those strict gun laws, how many school shootings do you think Scotland — and the United Kingdom as a whole — have had? ZERO.”
“We don’t have to live like this. We just don’t,” he concluded in the video.
BuzzFeed spoke to Francis, who said even though he was only 5 years old at the time of the Dunblane shooting, he still remembers how his parents reacted to it. “It floored my parents, in a 9/11 sort of way. Even when you’re young, you can tell when something has struck adults around you, and to them/so many in Scotland, what happened was truly incomprehensible.”
Allison Dinner / AFP via Getty Images
Francis hopes his video helps people realize that this is a choice our country is making. “The richest and self-proclaimed ‘freest’ country in the world chooses this nightmare. Politicians are choosing to prioritize the gun lobby over lives, over children, these were just babies. But they’re ‘pro-life,’ remember? In Scotland, it took just two weeks after the truly incomprehensible Dunblane shooting for elected officials to pass the Firearms (Amendment) Act. In America, it’s not even been two weeks since the Buffalo shooting and here we are, having the same conversation time and time again. It’s a choice, and that’s what I wanted to show.”
Allison Dinner / AFP via Getty Images
“Oftentimes, as an immigrant who speaks out on issues, I’m told ‘if you hate it, go back to where you came from.’ But I’ve always argued immigrants love this country just as much, if not more, than those who are here by birthright. We choose to live here, and countless risk their lives to do so. But that doesn’t mean it comes with an unwavering subscription to the atrocities,” Francis said.
@francismmaxwell / Instagram: @francismmaxwell, Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
“I’ve fallen in love with aspects of the US that anchor me here. The reality is, this is my home and therefore my fight. Like Baldwin said, ‘I love America more than any other country in the world, and that’s why I have the right to criticize her perpetually.’ I want to see this country live up to the ideals it claims to uphold but falls drastically short of. Because it’s not just about me, it’s about the people who are most at risk. I have the luxury of saying ‘I can just move,’ whereas most don’t.”
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/kristatorres/uk-ended-school-shootings-us-is-failing