Texas "Carry-Gun-to-Campus" To Take Effect On 50th Anniversary Of Whitman Tower Massacre

[ellenrr]

10/6- Mass shootings at schools are now a routine part of our lives, but every routine has a first. And for school shootings, it was at the University of Texas at Austin on Aug. 1, 1966.

Twenty-five-year-old Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the clocktower on campus and shot 43 people, killing 13. Texas Monthly's oral history of the afternoon called it the "first mass murder in a public space."

And, as the university's alumni association publication reported Tuesday, the 50th anniversary of his rampage will be the day Texas' campus carry bill goes into effect.

In a rundown of the current state of campus carry at the Austin campus, the university's alumni association, the Texas Exes, pointed out the date's irony: "On Aug. 1, 2016 — the 50th anniversary of the Charles Whitman UT Tower shooting — Senate Bill 11 will go into effect, making it legal for concealed handgun licensees to pack heat on Texas campuses. What exactly that will look like on the Forty Acres remains an open question, and one that has provoked intense emotions from all sides."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/texas-university-campus-carry-shooting-anniversary-charles-whitman

[SheilaT]

1. How appropriate!

I mean, ya gotta hand it to the people who would time something like this so carefully.

Too bad it didn't occur to someone on the fiftieth anniversary of the JFK slaying to . . . . well, nevermind. I guess something like that would be beyond the pale. Wouldn't it?

[Aristus]

2. I suppose it won't be long before Texas puts Charles Whitman on the state seal.

He's gone from being a demented monster to being a trailblazer of Texas culture.

[upaloopa]

3. Progress or regression?

Regression in my world view

[randome]

4. Because the only thing to stop a madman in a secure befry with an easily defended stairway is...

...duhhh, never mind.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]No squirrels were harmed in the making of this post. Yet.[/center][/font][hr]

[awoke_in_2003]

11. Yes...

had there been more belfries and more people with sniper rifles, this would never have happened

[GGJohn]

12. You are aware that it was armed civilians, along with police

that engaged Whitman, forcing him to keep his head down while police and a civilian were able to climb the stairs to where Whitman was and killed him, ending the terror he imposed on the students and faculty.

[randome]

19. Eventually. And yet nothing prevented all those people from being killed.

Therefore, the easy availability of high-powered weaponry aided in all those deaths.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]“If you're not committed to anything, you're just taking up space.”
Gregory Peck, Mirage (1965)[/center][/font][hr]

[Duckhunter935]

5. well, armed civillians

did help take the sniper I will not name out

Approximately 20 minutes after first shooting from the observation deck, ******** began to encounter return fire from both the police and armed civilians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman

[hifiguy]

6. Texas is one damned strange place.

[TeddyR]

7. The protests against campus carry are silly

Campus carry isn't going to lead to more shootings, just like gun free zones don't prevent shootings. Pretty sure that the criminals that want to commit these killings don't care if they are or are not allowed to have a gun on campus. How about we quit arguing about issues that don't actually matter and focus on those that might make a difference.

[COLGATE4]

8. Wonderful idea. We just today saw how letting impulsive

18 year olds with male ego-agression bursting at the seams have ready access to guns.

[hack89]

9. You have to be 21 to get a concealed carry license. Nt

[COLGATE4]

13. I wasn't referring to CC. The shooter at Northern Arizona

was 18.

[hack89]

14. Who could not legally carry a handgun in public

A criminal in other words.

[COLGATE4]

15. My point was my belief that, at that age (18) I seriously

doubt the wisdom of a student having access to a firearm.

[hack89]

18. Which is why the age to carry a handgun in public is 21

The law agrees with you.

[Snobblevitch]

16. While I do not believe this kid should have had the gun.

It was in his car. As long as the gun was visible, and not concealed, in the car, (Something I would never do) it was legal for him to have the gun.

I read somewhere that this altercation was part of a drug deal.

It does appear these college youth were involved in criminal activity.

[Snobblevitch]

10. While there is some irony in the law taking effect on that anniversay,

it was not intentional. In Many states, new laws take effect on August 1st.

[Kang Colby]

17. Question?

If the bill takes effect 50 years after the date of the massacre, how did Whitman get the gun on campus 50 years ago? Could it be that those intent on mass murder do not seem to fret much about gun free zones?