The Shooting That Shocked a Nation
Before Sandy Hook, there was Dunblane.
Wednesday the 13th of March 1996 started like many others. Men and women went to work, store shutters opened welcoming customers, and children entered their classrooms, ready to learn. It took just three minutes to change that day for an entire community, forever.
43-year-old Thomas Watt Hamilton spent a lot of his life helping out with the Scouts. In July 1973, he was made assistant leader within the Stirling Scout Association and later was made leader of his own group.
The complaints quickly began, when parents found out the Scouts were forced to sleep inside Hamilton’s van during overnight outings, with their leader. Some boys told their parents that he’d ordered them to strip and run around in their swimming trunks and there were photographs of boys in their swimwear, covering the walls of Hamilton’s home. In 1974, Hamilton’s Scout Warrant was taken from him and he was blacklisted.
Rumours about Hamilton began to spread across the small town but still, he continued to run several clubs, including football and summer camps for boys at nearby lochs. He was eventually banned from Loch Lomond’s campsite when the police turned up, inquiring about him. The council also got Hamilton banned from using Dunblane schools for his clubs, due to the…
