Scottish Tragedy Unites Political Foes in Mourning

In a display of unity on behalf of a country in mourning, Britain’s prime minister and his chief political opponent carried flowers, prayers and sympathy Friday to the stricken Scottish village of Dunblane, where a gunman killed 16 first-graders and their teacher this week.

As Dunblane wrestled with tragedy, a senior Scottish judge organized an independent investigation into why police granted embittered loner Thomas Hamilton multiple gun licenses.

Hamilton, who walked into the school with four handguns, killed himself after shooting 28 children and three teachers.

No corner of the British Isles has been spared ripples of Dunblane’s pain.

Queen Elizabeth, her voice filled with emotion on a royal visit to Leeds, spoke of the victims: “My heart goes out to them, each and every one, and especially to the families of those who were killed and injured. May their courage remain undimmed.”

The queen will visit Dunblane on Sunday with her daughter Princess Anne, Buckingham Palace said Friday night.

Ashen-faced, Prime Minister John Major, his wife, Norma, at his side, laid flowers beside hundreds of other bouquets at the school gates Friday after a 90-minute meeting inside with teachers and staff.

“With thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathy,” said the attached card.

“I don’t think it is possible to put into words what they have had to deal with,” Major said. “The way they have coped with all of it is remarkable in every respect.”

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Major was also accompanied by opposition leader Tony Blair, the polls’ choice as his likely successor, at the school and on a visit to injured children and their families at a local hospital.

Blair, alongside his wife, Cherie, carried a wreath of fuchsia and crocus that bore a card reading, “Our thoughts and prayers are with you.”

“We have seen for ourselves both the enormity of the evil act perpetrated at the school but also the quite extraordinary courage and resilience of the staff and everyone connected to the school and the local community,” Blair said.

Four of the dozen survivors have been released by area hospitals, but three remain in critical condition.

On Friday, 5-year-old Amie Adam, whose thigh was shattered by a bullet, suffered a post-operative relapse and was in intensive care at a Glasgow hospital.

Hamilton, a 43-year-old bachelor who liked photography and guns and, according to acquaintances, was fond of young boys, died as he had lived: protesting that he was being persecuted.

Details emerged Friday of recent letters--the latest in a long series, written to newspapers, local officials, even the queen--in which Hamilton complained of persecution, of how police had wrongly branded him a “pervert.” Some of the letters arrived at their destinations after the massacre.

“As well as my personal distress and loss of public standing, this situation has also resulted in loss of business and ability to earn a living,” Hamilton wrote in one letter.

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Hamilton went to the school Wednesday with two .357 magnum revolvers that police had given him permission to own last year. The other two guns he carried were Browning 9-millimeter pistols for which he was apparently also licensed, despite 20 years of sporadic complaints to police about his behavior.

On Friday night, the aching and angry people of Dunblane sought consolation in prayer.

Hundreds filled the 13th century Gothic cathedral around which this village north of Edinburgh was built.