Every day I or my wife go to pick up our three year old daughter from Nursery school. In a couple of years she will, God willing, begin her formal day schooling. For all parents in our position the daily routine of collecting children from school, bumping into other parents and taking possession of yet another artistic masterpiece from the wean, is something that is somehow comforting. For that reason many of us will never forget what we saw on our television screens five years ago here in Scotland. Rumours began to come through of a shooting in a Scottish primary school. At first it was suggested that there was one fatality and then we heard that there were several children killed. I recall stopping my car, finding a TV screen and watching as parents in Dunblane ran to the school – not to make the usual pick up but, horror of horrors, to check that their children were still alive. 16 four to six year olds died, 12 were wounded. Their teacher was killed. And the perpetrator then shot himself. It was a horrendous shock to the Scottish psyche. This was Dunblane, a pleasant middle class town in the heart of Scotland’s commuter belt, not New York (as one journalist murmured – ‘welcome to America’). Personally, I will always remember that day and I suspect that it will be a part of the collective Scottish psyche for a long time to come. But is there anything further that we can reflect on and learn from?

Should we remember the tragedy? Should we rack over old wounds? Whilst the bare statistics are horrible enough, the personal details of each death are horrendous and painful. Let me quote from one local woman, cited in the Scotsman, - “Consider this. The parents of one of the dead boys tried for nearly ten years to have their child who became a beloved only son. It emerged that the child was wounded by Hamilton’s first shots and then crawled away. However, in his confusion, he moved back within range and was shot dead. That knowledge is a great burden. Sharing it with the world once is tragedy enough. Having to share it more than once is intrusion into private grief”. There is a wrong intrusion. But there is also a wrong forgetfulness. Moving on without forgetting is a crucial part of growing up, both as individuals and as communities.

What about the perpetrator, Thomas Hamilton? It was too easy for the press to portray him as ‘other’ , as evil, as different. Hamilton was the sinner. Everyone else is perfect. The harsh reality is that Hamilton was an unbalanced sinner, an evil man, a loner with a self obsession and access to guns. But the world is full of such people. Indeed to be human is to be sinful. If it were not for the restraining grace of God, all of us would descend into the hell of our own self-obsession and rebellion with all its attendant consequences. Even Dunblane in the aftermath of the disaster remained a sinful place. We would like to think that this was a community which pulled together and which mourned together with the rest of the world. That did happen but the consequences of human sinfulness were still displayed. Mick North, whose daughter Sophie was murdered, wrote a book entitled Never Forget in which he spoke of police insensitivity, media manipulation and community infighting. One of the worst examples of the sickness of our society is the two policemen who were allegedly so traumatized that they want £800,000 compensation. I will restrain my language – what can one say about men who are prepared to make money out of others deaths? The human condition is such that being made in Gods image we have a tremendous capacity to love, heal, restore and forgive. However because that image is marred and perverted, we also have the capacity to shoot children because we have been slighted and profit from the sins and horrors of others.

What about the question of guns? Whenever such a disaster occurs within the US it is immediately politicized by both the pro and anti gun lobbies. There is a knee jerk reaction from conservatives who accuse the liberals of having a knee jerk reaction against guns. Both groups seem to immediately politicize the issue. Sadly many Christians seem to be at the forefront of the ‘it doesn’t matter what happens, as long as we can keep our guns’ brigade. I was recently astounded to receive a couple of facetious articles from Christians after a recent incident. The one argued that cars should be banned as they could be a murder weapon, the other suggested that American footballs should be banned as more children are killed playing American football, than are killed by guns in American schools. As an exercise in logic these comments were astounding. As an exercise in humour they were sick. Equally to engage in truisms such as ‘it is not guns that kill but people’ does not really help. The fact is that Mr Hamilton was not a criminal and yet he was able to obtain four handguns and ammunition for his evil purpose. It may have been a knee jerk reaction but the subsequent hand gun legislation was justified and has helped make Britain a safer place. I have never seen a gun in Dundee. I cannot recall when I last heard of a shooting. And I do not go to bed at night feeling that I need a gun to protect myself. Given the choice between that and the fear that haunts the minds of some of my American friends, I know which one I prefer.

Finally we ask ‘where was God?’. I find it interesting that some people would argue that their belief in God is destroyed by such tragedies. On the other hand I find that tragedy drives people to God. It was intriguing to read the Scotsman’s comment , “Whether God was present on 13th March, 1996, is a matter of personal faith, but many parents have taken comfort from their belief to help heal the bulk of the pain”. We all need God. We all need his comfort. Not the vague, woolly, ‘feel good’ religion which anethetises our pain, but rather the real, living, loving and awesome God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. If he notices and cares about the sparrow falling then he surely noticed and cared about the fallen children in Dunblane. And he does not forget.

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