On 13 March 1996, an unemployed former shopkeeper walked into the Dunblane (Scotland) Primary School armed with several revolvers, all legally held. He fired his weapons 109 times with an alternating combination of full-metal-jacket and hollow-point ammunition killing sixteen children and one adult. Then he fired one shot with one of his two revolvers pointing upwards into his mouth, killing himself instantly. This is the greatest children massacre in UK. The school gymnasium where the massacre took place was demolished on April 11, 1996, and within two years the Dunblane Primary School was completely refurbished.

The bells of Dunblane cathedral rang a long tribute to the victims. The Pipe Major Robert Mathieson of the Shotts and Dykehead Pipe Band composed a slow air for the Highland Bagpipes in memoriam of the event. He entitled it "The Bells of Dunblane" because the silence of the people and the sound of the cathedral bells seemed much stronger than any spoken word.