A father whose daughter died in the ­Dunblane massacre has told how he angrily confronted Tony Blair to convince him to back a ban on handguns.

Kenny Ross’s five-year-old daughter Joanna was one of the 16 children who were shot dead along with their teacher, Gwen Mayor, at Dunblane Primary School on the fateful day of March 13, 1996.

The gunman, Thomas Hamilton, killed ­himself following his murderous spree, which remains Britain’s worst mass shooting.

In the months following the tragedy parents of the victims met with then Labour leader Mr Blair in a bid to persuade him to outlaw handguns if he was elected Prime Minister.

And Mr Ross, 62, told how he once lost his temper while discussing the issue and told Mr Blair to imagine his own daughter dead and buried.

In the wake of the massacre a petition ­calling for a full handgun ban, The Snowdrop Campaign, was founded and ­supported by many of the grieving parents.

Prime Minister John Major’s then Conservative ­government implemented a partial gun ban, which did not include .22 calibre ­single-shot weapons.

And Mr Blair has since admitted that the meeting with the families convinced him that he had to ­implement a total ban.

Speaking in a new BBC documentary to mark the 30th anniversary of the massacre, Mr Ross said: ‘We had the meeting with Tony Blair and he said that if they were elected he would do what he could to go by our wishes.

‘He said, “I will see what we can do” and I was just fed up. I finally said to him, “Have you got any children?” and he said “yes” and I said, “Well, I had a daughter, she’s now six foot under. That is why you have to do ­something about these gun laws”.

‘And then there was total silence. You could have heard a pin drop. I was starting to think “Have I said the right thing? Have I said the wrong thing?”.

‘It was to get his attention as to how serious this is and hopefully it hit home.’

After Mr Blair became Prime Minister in May 1997, one of his first actions was to invite the ­parents of the Dunblane victims to Downing Street to tell them that he would go ahead with a ban.

Mr Ross added: ‘I asked Tony, “Has it got anything to do with what I said to you?”. He said, “Not entirely” but I kind of hope it did have some effect.’

Recalling his encounter with the families, Mr Blair told the documentary: ‘I remember meeting them and part of the shock for me was that my children were a little bit older but they were still at school. I felt deeply for them but as a political leader you can’t take all your decisions on the basis that there is a campaign to do ­something.

‘People make demands on ­government the whole time, you can’t meet all those demands. But this demand in this way wasn’t about money, it wasn’t about ­priorities. It was just about a ­terrible, terrible event that the country was determined should lead to a change.’

Speaking about her husband’s exchange with Mr Blair, Mr Ross’s wife, Pam, said: ‘My chin fell and I thought, “I can’t believe he’s just said that”.

‘It just hit home for me what we had lost. I think that it ­probably affected him (Blair) as a father.

‘We kept up the pressure on ­politicians and anyone who was ­prepared to listen to us.

‘When we are not here we want the next generation and the next generation to be as vigilant as they can be so that it doesn’t ever change.’

Mr Ross also paid tribute to his daughter but said that the hardest part for him three decades later is that he can no longer remember what her voice sounded like.

He said: ‘She was just a lively wee girl. She was a daddy’s girl, she definitely was a daddy’s girl.

‘What I miss most is, I can’t remember what she sounds like.

‘This was before the time of ­videos, mobile phones. We have plenty of photographs but no ­videos of her and I have forgotten her voice.’

■ Dunblane: How Britain Banned Handguns will air on the BBC Scotland channel on Tuesday at 9pm.