It shouldn’t take the slaughter of 16 first graders to change the gun laws of a country, but this time it did. In this odd twist, the previous attempts to protect children from what turned out to be a cold blooded killer failed them, by triggering a massacre of historical proportions. The shots will always be heard at Dunblane Primary School, Dublane, central Scotland. This sleepy town will never be the same.
The Background:
On March 13, 1996 an extremely pissed off and calculating pedophile, Mr. Thomas Hamilton, entered Dunblane Primary School, an elementary school with 700 children attending. Armed with 2 9mm Browning HP pistols, 2 Smith and Wesson m19 .357 mag revolvers and 743 rounds of ammo,and a pair of pliers or wire cutters that he used to cut the phone lines to the school, he pushed through 2 staff members and found Mrs. Gwen Major’s first grade class in progress. He preceded to fire off 109 rounds, alternating hollow points and full metal jackets, killing Mrs. Majors as she attempted to shield her students, and 15 kids, all between the ages of 5 and 6 years old. He then turned one of his guns on himself.
The entire attack lasted about 3 minutes. School had just started, with the first call for help coming in to emergency personnel at 9:30am, and the first responders arriving at 9:45am. The coroner found that most of the dead suffered at least 5 gunshots, some up to 7. Twelve more kids and two more teachers were also injured, 3 of them on the critical list days after the attack. All his guns were legally owned.
Thomas Hamilton had become obsessed with two things in his 43 years of life. Boys, and guns. Early on when he was 20, he became a scout leader but was later blacklisted from the organization for inappropriate behavior with the kids, involving possible sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect. He possessed pictures of semi nude boys and kept them throughout his home, because he was “proud”. Although there were many attempts by him to re-enter the organization, he was never allowed back in.
Instead he ran NUMEROUS boys clubs targeting kids 7-12, from 1975 thru early 90’s, boot camp style, all unsupervised. One of his clubs even met in the very gymnasium where he ended so many young lives. Not long before the attack, he had been turned down when applying to volunteer at that very same school.
He opened a DYI wood crafting shop in 1972 that eventually went under. He blamed the rumors that were spread about him for the decline in business, and began to write letters to Scotland’s scout association, headquarters, parents of kids, authorities, and even petitioned the Queen herself, complaining of HIS mistreatment and victimization. He believed there was a conspiracy to destroy him.
There is evidence he planned this attack 2 years in advance. There was also a large gun and ammo purchase 6 months in advance, with an increase in practice sessions at gun clubs.
700,000 citizens signed a petition to outlaw private ownership of handguns, completely outright, as a result of this. The outcry led to Firearms (amendment) Act 1997, and firearms (amendment #2) Act 1997, making all private ownership of handguns illegal in the UK. This was the deadliest attack on children in all the history of the UK.
Paranormal standpoint? SO MUCH residual in the school, it is I’m sure amazing. I wouldn’t doubt that there would be more than just residual there. Psychic Standpoint? I would love the opportunity to read Mr. Hamilton and retrace his footsteps to possibly see where that switch was thrown, and how this could be prevented in other cases. Is this something that could be predicted? I believe so.
There are many questions still unanswered about this case, as the ‘higher ups’ decided for the 100 year ban before allowing evidence to be public, even though they hid behind the excuse of keeping children’s identities private…many parents of the victims were the first calling for evidence to be revealed. Hamilton had Freemason ties, friends in the police force, took too long to get to the school (15 minute trip took 45 minutes), an off duty cop just happened to be at the school but was not questioned or used as a witness. All of these should be answered, even this long after.
Chelsea Damali 