Around World, Massacres Have Spurred Gun Control If there's anywhere that understands the pain of Newtown, it's Dunblane, the town whose grief became a catalyst for changes to Britain's gun laws. In March 1996, a 43-year-old man named Thomas Hamilton walked into a primary school in this central Scotland town of 8,000 people and shot to death 16 kindergarten-age children and their teacher with four legally held handguns. In the weeks that followed, people in the town formed the Snowdrop campaign - named for the first flower of spring - to press for a ban on handguns. Within weeks, it had collected 750,000 signatures. By the next year, the ban had become law. It is a familiar pattern around the world - from Britain to Australia, grief at mass shootings has been followed by swift political action to tighten gun laws. Many in the United States are calling for that to happen there, too, after the shooting of 20 children as young as six at a school in Newtown, Connecticut. Many other Americans are adamant the laws should not change. In Dunblane, residents have been gathering at the town's massacre memorial to sign a book of condolence - but are loath to advise grieving Americans what to do. It is not for us to tell the U.S. about gun control. That is for the people there," said Terence O'Brien, a member of the Dunblane community council. What happened here was similar in many respects, but the wider culture is different. FILE - In this March 17, 1996 file photo, Britain's Queen Elizabeth places a floral bouquet with hundreds of others in front of Dunblane Primary School. (AP Photo/Ian Waldie, Pool-File) Close When it comes to guns, the United States is exceptional. The U.S. has the highest civilian gun ownership rate in the world, with 89 guns per 100 people, according to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey. Gun advocates, including the powerful lobby group the National Rifle Association, have blocked attempts to toughen American gun laws in the wake of previous mass shootings. Gun supporters say that the right to bear arms, enshrined in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, makes firearms ownership a civil rights issue, rather than simply an issue of public safety. Supporters of gun control often cite Australia's dramatic response to a 1996 shooting spree in the southern state of Tasmania that killed 35 people. The slaughter sparked outrage across the country and within 12 days federal and state governments had agreed to impose strict new gun laws, including a ban on semi-automatic rifles like the Colt AR-15 used by the Tasmania killer. The Connecticut killer used a similar, rapid-firing weapon. Gun ownership was restricted to people with genuine need or sporting shooters with gun club membership. Some 700,000 guns were bought back and destroyed by the federal government from owners who no longer qualified to possess them. The changes were unpopular with politicians from rural areas with high numbers of hunters and farmers. But, as in Britain after Dunblane, the strength of public opinion swayed politicians from both government and opposition parties. Gun laws also were strengthened in Canada after the 1989 slaying of 14 female engineering students in Montreal by a woman-hating gunman, and in Germany after a 19-year-old expelled student killed 16 people, including 12 teachers, in Erfurt in 2002. Even gun-loving Finland - with 45 firearms for every 100 people - tightened its laws after two school shootings in 2007 and 2008, raising the minimum age for firearms ownership and giving police greater powers to make background checks on individuals applying for a gun license.