I was living abroad at the time this happened but I remember listening to the reports about it on the World Service.

What a nightmare for all concerned.

Andy Murray (I later learned) comes from Dunblane and was apparently at the same school on that day.

That must have left its mark on him and his family.

Presumably legal handguns are all banned to help prevent this type of thing happening again. In other words only the bad guys will have illegal guns and there would be fewer of those about than people with legal guns if they were still legal. Obviously the man wasn't right in the head but presumably he gave no cause to the police to have his licence refused.  How on earth do you stop someone from doing something like Dunblane? I'm not sure you can but you can make it more difficult for them by not allowing legal handguns.