In the minutes, hours and days following the terrible tragedy at Sandy Hook elementary in Newton, Conn., plenty of politicians, celebrities and athletes offered up support, donations and heart-felt sorrow for the victims of this horrible tragedy. But few people actually know from experience how tough this can be.
Andy Murray, the 2012 U.S. Open champion, was part of a 1996 school shooting at Dunblane Primary in central Scotland that left 16 students and a teacher dead, and offered up his support for the Connecticut community on his Facebook page this last weekend.
“My heart goes out to all those poor children, their families and the community in Newtown in Connecticut, so, so sad,” Murray said.
The shooting in 1996, according to this USA Today report, was a very similar situation to that of Sandy Hook, and while Murray doesn’t talk much about this, understandably, he has mentioned at times of what happened all those years ago.
Murray and his brother took cover under a table in a classroom, and his mother even commented to ESPN that this particular day was, “The worst. The worst thing you could ever imagine having to go through in your life. Sitting, waiting and not knowing if your child is alive or dead — you can’t imagine what that was like. It was quite horrific.”
Murray mentioned in his book Hitting Back that, “The weirdest thing is that we knew the guy (Thomas Hamilton),” a former scout leader that took the lives of these 17 people before taking his own.
The aftermath of the Dunblane shootings was then Prime Minister Tony Blair putting a stop to firearm sales in the United Kingdom, with similar reactions being thrown around in this country after Sandy Hook.
