SECOND ACTS

INTEREST IN MOST NEWS STORIES (O.J. EXCEPTED) FADES AFTER A WEEK OR TWO. BUT LIVES, CASES AND ISSUES KEEP UNFOLDING. WE REVISIT SOME OF 1996'S MOST INTRIGUING STORIES

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For the most part, the Scottish town of Dunblane has been left to its grief. Certainly, the press showed up at the half-year anniversary to cover a memorial service, also attended by Prince Charles, in the small town's 13th century cathedral. But in the months since the March day when a failed youth leader named Thomas Hamilton strode into the Dunblane primary school with four legally owned handguns and began shooting--shooting until 16 children and one teacher were dead and Hamilton had put a bullet in his own head--the British media have observed an informal blackout, so that a terrible nightmare has not been made cheap as well.

The gym where the killings took place has been torn down. Concerts and fairs have been held in support of the stricken families, and more than $12 million has been raised to help them, and for memorials. Perhaps the most notable commemoration was set in motion when the father of one victim heard some new lyrics written by a local musician for the Bob Dylan song Knockin' on Heaven's Door. With Dylan's blessing, some of the Dunblane children, including the siblings of four of the victims, recorded the song, which sold 189,000 copies within a week and entered the British pop singles' chart at No. 1. "Lord, these guns have caused too much pain/ This town will never be the same," ran the new words. "So for the bairns [children] of Dunblane/ We ask, please never again." Profits will go to three children's charities.

Another response to the tragedy: the House of Commons voted in October to tighten Britain's already strict gun laws, banning all handguns larger than .22 cal. Prince Philip, who opposes the law, set off a national furor last week when he complained, "If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean are you going to ban cricket bats?" The Prince has since apologized.

--By David Van Biema and Steve Wulf, with bureau reports

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