SIXTEEN children slain with their teacher in the Dunblane massacre and the campaign to stop a repeat were remembered today, 30 years on from the tragedy.

Children aged just five and six years old were killed alongside their 45-year-old teacher, Gwen Mayor, when gunman Thomas Hamilton, 43, walked into Dunblane Primary School on the morning of March 13 1996 armed with four handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, before killing himself.

He had legally owned the weapons at the time of the shooting, a fact that swiftly led to a grassroots campaign culminating in the ban on handguns the following year.

Reflecting on the anniversary, Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander said: “One small glimmer of light in the enveloping darkness was the complete consensus across Scottish society and across all the political parties that action needed to be taken in relation to the handgun ban.”

Expressing “deep admiration for the campaigning work of the affected parents,” he added: “I also feel a shared determination to honour their memory by continuing to uphold those tight gun laws.”

Recalling the “very strong and very violent” resistance from the pro-gun lobby against the fledgling Gun Control Network at the time, chair Gill Marshall-Andrews said: “We had a lot of death threats. We had a PO Box in Finchley that was regularly closed because of bomb threats.

“If handguns had not been banned then, we would be down the American road.”

For First Minister John Swinney, the day, which coincided with the birth of his son, brought mixed emotions.

He said: “I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that that very same day, some of my work colleagues had to come to terms with the loss of their child in this unspeakable tragedy.

“The contrast of how I felt about the arrival of my son in comparison to the devastation that was felt by people I knew who had lost their children, was a contrast that I’ll just never, ever forget.”

He added: “I think we should be very proud that we took the action that we took and we honoured the suffering of the families who lost children and the death also of Gwen Mayor, their teacher, in order to make sure that others did not suffer in the way that the people of Dunblane suffered.

“I think there’s a really powerful lesson for us all in that.”