Cabinet papers just published by the National Records of Scotland have revealed a discussion surrounding the sport which ultimately remained due to fears that the bid would suffer without it.

The documents from February 2007, when former First Minister of Scotland Jack McConnell, noted that planning for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow was under way, and that shooting had been included as one of the additional sports in the programme.

"Although this decision could prove to be controversial, given the sensitivities that remained in Scotland following the Dunblane tragedy, it was clear that, without it, Glasgow would have lost votes on its bid," the papers said.

In the end, Glasgow was awarded the event by the Commonwealth Games Federation after beating its only rival, Nigeria's capital Abuja, by 47 votes to 24 at the General Assembly in Colombo in Sri Lanka in November 2007. 

Ministers then decided that shooting would take place at existing training facilities for the military or police.

As a result, when the Games took place the sport was held at the Barry Buddon Training Camp near Dundee which is owned by the Ministry of Defence and is around 60 miles from Dunblane.

Thomas Hamilton killed 16 pupils and a teacher at Dunblane Primary School on March 13 in 1996, while a further 15 were injured before he killed himself.

Following the massacre, two new Firearms Acts were implemented in Britain which outlawed the private ownership of most handguns.

Since then no mass shootings with handguns have occurred.

Australia topped the standings in the Glasgow 2014 shooting competitions with six gold and two bronze medals.

Scotland's two silvers and two bronze medals ensured they finished seventh in the table.

Shooting was controversially dropped from the programme for Birmingham 2022, leading to threats from India that they would boycott the Games.

It has been included on the programme for the next Commonwealth Games at Victoria in Australia in 2026.