Dunblane victim used in anti-gun campaign

An emotive advertising campaign using a photograph of one of the children murdered at Dunblane is launched today by a group lobbying to make Europe a gun-free zone.

Emma Crozier is the central feature of the advertisement, which appears in The Independent today.

Above her picture run the words: "No more picnics, no more days on the beach, no more butterflies, no more chockie cake, no more bedtime stories, no more teddy bears, no more kisses good night ... No More Guns."

The campaign is being run by the Society Against Guns in Europe (SAGE). It is timed to coincide with the publication on Monday of the controversial Home Affairs Select Committee report on firearms, in which the Conservative members are believed to be opting against a ban on handguns. The Cullen Report on the Dunblane massacre, which will make recommendations on the issue of banning handguns, is due to be published in September.

John Crozier, Emma's father, who has just been made the group's UK President, fully supports the use of his daughter's image. "What does it need for people to act? It takes something like this," he said.

The adverts will feature his comment: "Your child's right to life is greater than anyone's right to own a gun."

This move to harder and more emotional advertisements is a deliberate policy by SAGE to concentrate public attention on the issue of a total ban on privately owned weapons.

The general secretary, Tobias Bernstein, feels that other anti- gun groups are misguided in lobbying solely on banning hand-guns - used by the Dunblane killer, Thomas Hamilton. "All guns kill; there is no need for private gun ownership," he said. Mr Bernstein, who funds the organisation through a family trust, says it has 1,900 members, with "thousands" of people expressing interest.

A spokesman for the British Association for Shooting and Conservation said that the emotive advertisements would attract public sympathy.

But he added: "The 1 million people who practise shooting sports will see this as ... high-profile, powerful advertising costing a great deal of money, used against them - the very thing the often-quoted `gun lobby' is accused of."