Scottish town shares agony of U.S. school tragedy

DUNBLANE, Scotland (Reuters) - Of all the messages of sympathy for the stricken U.S. community of Newtown, few carry the emotional weight of those from Dunblane, the small Scottish town that still bears the scars of Britain's worst school massacre.

On March 13, 1996, a gunman walked into the gymnasium of a primary school in the close-knit cathedral town and shot dead 16 children and their teacher before turning the gun on himself.

Few residents want to talk about the terrible events that for years made Dunblane synonymous with tragedy, but reminders abound, made all the more poignant by the onset of Christmas.

At the far end of the cemetery on the edge of town, toys, fairies and portraits of smiling children decorate the graves of many of the victims, while small windmills spin in the winter breeze under grey skies.

A miniature Christmas tree stands next to one grave and a bunch of pink roses covered in dew drops rests on the spot where their teacher, Gwen Mayor, 45, is buried.

"The memories are flooding back. It must be hell for the parents. We said prayers for them in my church," said Harry McEwan, 71, who has lived in the town for 30 years. "Dunblane has so much in common with what has happened in Newtown."

The Dunblane massacre shocked the world and started a public campaign that led to Britain adopting some of the strictest gun controls in the world.

The Newtown shooting has already prompted calls for new U.S. gun restrictions, including a ban on assault weapons. President Barack Obama said things must change to prevent more killings.

In Britain, the scale of revulsion over Dunblane's three-minute rampage led within two years to new laws that effectively banned civilians from owning handguns. Ministers also promised to improve school security.

The Dunblane shootings were particularly shocking for a country where the police are not routinely armed and gun crime is relatively unusual. Of the 636 murders in England and Wales in 2010/11, 60 were shootings. Last year, firearms were used in 0.3 percent of all recorded crimes.

The Dunblane gunman, Thomas Hamilton, was a 43-year-old known locally as a misfit and a loner. He had been sacked as a Scout leader after complaints about his behavior around young boys.

A government inquiry after the rampage recommended tougher vetting of voluntary workers as well as closer scrutiny of those applying to own a gun. Hamilton's four weapons were all legal.

'DARK CLOUD'

Dunblane has tried to move on. The sports hall where the shooting took place has been demolished and the school has been refurbished. However, the U.S. shooting has brought back painful memories.

"A dark cloud came over us," said lifelong Dunblane resident Nancy, who declined to give her surname. "The heaviness, the sorrow. Just disbelief and shock. Our hearts go out to the people of Newtown. It's still very painful and when something happens elsewhere it sort of bubbles up to the surface."

Dunblane has grown in the last decade and is a popular choice for families who want to live in a quiet community within reach of jobs in the nearby city of Stirling or Scotland's biggest cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Arriving at school on a damp winter's morning, a group of girls laughed and played hopscotch in the playground before a bell summoned them and their fellow pupils to class.

They waved goodbye to their parents through the school windows as they walked upstairs.

"It's a fantastic place to bring up a family. It's just a pity that (the shooting) is the first thing people think of," said Ann Johnston, 39, a mother of three.

At the memorial garden which replaced the demolished gymnasium, a note attached to yellow roses remembers "All the lost angels of Dunblane".

In the years ahead, Newtown may find it hard to tread a path between remembering the dead and trying to move on from the tragedy, according to one church leader in Dunblane.

"How do you strike the balance? The answer, I suspect, will be different for every community but there will be problems for a long time to come," the Reverend Colin McIntosh, minister of Dunblane Cathedral, told the BBC.

For some Dunblane families, strength came from within their community, their church or from their other children. Others said campaigning to change gun control laws was a useful way to channel their energies.

"It didn't bring Victoria and the other children back, but it gave us a meaningful reason to just get through today, tomorrow and the next day," Charles Clydesdale, whose 5-year-old was among the victims, wrote in the Mail on Sunday newspaper.

In the main shopping street, the Christmas lights point to happier times. A golden post box commemorates the success at this summer's London Olympics of the town's most famous son, tennis player Andy Murray.

He was at the school when the shooting happened and had to take shelter. Dunblane's link with one of Britain's top sportsmen has helped change its image.

"I don't want to say they'll get over it but they'll emerge from it. They'll find strength in each other, as a community," said local councilor Graham Houston. "Dunblane has moved on but it won't forget." (Writing by Peter Griffiths; additional reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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FLASHBACK: Obama: I Have Expanded Rights of Gun Owners

A Note from Michael Moore on Newtown

China detains 100-plus people for doomsday rumors

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese police have detained more than 100 people, among them members of a fringe Christian group, for spreading rumors about the world's impending end, state media reported Tuesday.

Police seized leaflets, video discs, books and other apocalyptic materials in the recent arrests of 101 people across eight provinces and regions, from the prosperous east coast to less developed western China, the Xinhua News Agency said.

The detentions come ahead of Friday, Dec. 21 — a date some say the Mayans prophesized would be the end of the world and which was the subject of the apocalyptic movie "2012."

Nearly half those detained are reported to be members of the group Almighty God, which is also calledEastern Lightning, after a phrase from the Bible's Book of Matthew. Widely regarded as a heretical Christian sect, the group preaches that Jesus has reappeared as a woman in central China. It has been accused of targeting Christians, kidnapping and beating them to force conversions.

Chinese society has been in tumult as decades of rapid free-market economic growth discredit communist ideology, loosen social controls and pull hundreds of millions from the countryside to the cities. Into the spiritual void have rushed traditional Buddhist groups and Daoist practices, as well as evangelical Christian churches and other spiritual groups, some with unorthodox and apocalyptic visions.

Eastern Lightning first appeared around 20 years ago, and Xinhua said that its members had "recently latched on to the Mayan doomsday prophesy to predict that the sun will not shine and electricity will not work for three days beginning on Dec. 21."

The state-run Huashang website last week, citing local authorities, reported that the group is urging followers to "exterminate the great red dragon" — a reference to the Communist Party — "and found a country under the rule of Almighty God."

Gun control gets unlikely backers in US Congress; Obama to make it second-term priority

WASHINGTON - Prominent gun-rights advocates in Congress are now calling for a national discussion about restrictions to curb gun violence, signalling that the horrific shooting at a Connecticut elementary school could be a tipping point in a debate that has been dormant for years.

White House officials said President Barack Obama would make preventing gun violence a second-term policy priority. But it was unclear what Obama would pursue or how, and aides said stricter gun laws would be only part of any effort.

The president met Monday afternoon with Vice-President Joe Biden and a handful of Cabinet members to begin discussions on ways the country should respond to the Newtown shootings. Among those in attendance were Attorney General Eric Holder, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

It remains to be seen whether Obama and Congress can turn their rhetoric into action or whether the shock over the Connecticut shootings will fade before they do. Public opinion has shifted against toughergun control in recent years, and the gun lobby is a powerful political force, particularly in Republican primaries. Also, Obama has called for a national dialogue after other mass shootings during his presidency, only to see those efforts take a backseat to other pressing issues.

This time, the president has vowed to use "whatever power this office holds" to safeguard American children against gun violence, suggesting he may put political muscle behind an assault weapons ban. He has long supported reinstating the ban, which expired in 2004, but never pressed for in his first term. Liberal Democrats on Capitol Hill are already laying the groundwork for legislation to outlaw the military-style arms.

Twenty children and six adults were killed when a gunman carrying a high-powered military-style rifle and other guns stormed Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, Friday morning.

"Everything should be on the table," West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin declared Monday. He is a conservative Democrat, avid hunter and lifelong member of the National Rifle Association. Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa proposed a study of both gun violence and mental health issues.

Virginia's Mark Warner, one of the few Senate Democrats who has found favour with gun rights groups, reversed course to back restrictions on assault weapons.

"The status quo is not acceptable anymore," he said.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vowed Congress would soon "engage in a meaningful conversation and thoughtful debate about how to change laws and culture that allow violence to grow." The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on gun violence early next year.

In July, after 12 people were murdered in a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado, Reid said the Senate's schedule was too packed to have a debate on gun control.

In 2010, top NRA official Wayne LaPierre called Reid "a true champion" of gun rights.

It's too early to say what could emerge next year in Congress, but the comments of Grassley, Reid and Manchin are significant. Grassley is senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which probably would have the first crack at any gun control legislation. Reid sets the Senate schedule. And Manchin said he's "not afraid of the political ramifications" from defying the NRA.

Other Republicans said mental health, not guns, was the problem, and generally stayed away from a debate on gun control.

Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, said: "We recognize those very demented, awkward people commit those crimes. We need to do a better job treating and looking at and finding people who have these problems. That's the issue. We have millions and millions of guns. Guns aren't the problem; sick people are."

The American public has been split over tougher gun laws, and there is no early indication that the Newtown shootings are changing many minds. A Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted over the weekend showed 54 per centfavour tougher laws, about the same as the 51 per cent in favour earlier in the year. Seven in 10 are opposed to banning the sale of handguns to anyone except law enforcement officers, the highest percentage since 1999.

Obama's spokesman reiterated his support for reinstating the assault weapons ban. Obama was outspoken in his calls for Washington to renew the ban during his 2008 White House run, but he made no effort to get it done during his first four years in office.

If Obama follows through on his pledge to make the stemming of gun violence a priority, he's likely to press for a broad approach. He's previously called for improving mental health services for young people and instituting more effective policing strategies, though his rhetoric has never turned into a policy push.

Obama has said he believes the Constitution's Second Amendment guarantees an individual the right to bear arms and has spoken of a national heritage that cherishes hunting, shooting and the tradition of gun ownership. The president has signed laws letting people carry concealed weapons in national parks and in checked bags on Amtrak passenger trains.

At the White House, press secretary Jay Carney said stricter gun control laws were part of the solution but not the only one. He said the president would engage in "the coming weeks" in a process that includes input from law enforcement, mental health experts and lawmakers.

"It's a complex problem that will require a complex solution," Carney said. "No single piece of legislation, no single action will fully address the problem."

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said she will introduce legislation next year to ban the sale of new assault weapons, as well as big clips, drums and strips of more than 10 bullets.

Police say the Newtown gunman, Adam Lanza, was carrying an arsenal of ammunition and used a high-powered rifle similar to the military's M-16.

White House officials said the president feels some urgency to address gun violence in the wake of Friday's violence. But Obama is not expected to take any formal action before the end of the year given the all-consuming efforts to resolve tax and deficit-reduction talks and nominate new Cabinet secretaries.

Some gun control advocates urged Obama and lawmakers to act quickly, while the sorrow and shock of the Newtown shooting is still raw.

Flanked by dozens of shooting survivors and relatives of victims of gunfire around the country, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg pressed for tougher gun laws and tighter enforcement after the Connecticut school massacre.

"If this doesn't do it," Bloomberg asked, "what is going to?"

Such pleas have become near rituals for Bloomberg, a billionaire who has used both his mayoralty and his own money to push the gun-control cause only to see it slide from the national agenda again and again. But Bloomberg is pressing to make this moment a turning point.

Bloomberg and the mayors' group he leads, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, are calling for reinstituting a version of the federal assault weapons ban that expired in 2004, closing the so-called "gun show loophole" by requiring all gun sellers to conduct criminal background checks on prospective buyers, and stepping up federal prosecutions of people who lie on background checks, among other proposals.

Since the shootings, the powerful National Rifle Association lobby has been silent. Requests for comments have gone unanswered, and officials are turning down interview requests until they have more details. Their 1.7 million-strong Facebook group has disappeared, and the group's Twitter account — which is a favourite platform to communicate with supporters — has not sent a message since before the grim reality of Friday's shootings set in.

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Associated Press writers Jim Abrams, Philip Elliott and AP Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta in Washington, Jennifer Peltz in New York, and AP writer Helen O'Neill in Newtown, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

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