Understanding the 1966 UT Tower Shooting Tragedy

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On August 01st, 1966 on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, many families lost their loved ones to the actions of Charles Whitman, a lone gunman who was only 25 years old at the time; Whitman climbed the campus tower, and with three rifles, two pistols, and a sawed-off shotgun, he shot forty-three people, (thirteen of whom died,) in just under ninety-six minutes. This historic tragic event became known as the UT Tower Shooting. According to the Texas Monthly archives, Charles Whitman, an Architectural major, and Ex-Marine had battled personal demons of depression and severe headaches so much to the point that he started that very morning off by killing his mother and wife. During the shooting spree, people everywhere in the radius of the tower either hid somewhere hoping to block his shots, or they simply played dead to escape the bullets. Parents have enough to be stressed and concerned with their children attending schools where strangers can easily trespass and endanger our kid’s lives with guns. Now those levels of stress and concern are …show more content…

And to add insult to injury is the bill’s effective date; after being signed by the Governor, the bill will take effect on August 1, 2016 for all institutions of higher education except for community colleges. The effective date for these campuses is August 1, 2017. This effective date is exactly 50 years to the date of the UT Tower

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