Monday marked the 50th anniversary of the 1966 sniper shooting which left 14 dead at the University of Texas at Austin. The killer, a former marine, murdered his wife and mother before going to the UT campus and shootings from the clock tower. On Monday, the school will open a new memorial to the victims. On Monday, Texas becomes the eleventh state to mandate that permitted concealed handguns be allowed on public university campuses (21 other states leave that decision up to the individual schools).

The coincidence of the dates have been accidental, but many are outraged by what they have considered the callousness of legislators marking this anniversary by allowing more guns on college campuses. Others, such as University of Texas at Austin President Greg Fenves, said that the two events “are separate issues.  We are not connecting them in any way.”

But if America had learned anything from past mass public shootings, it is that August 1 which is precisely the day to implement the new law. But banning guns only ensures that law-abiding good citizens are disarmed, not the killers.

Few people know the actual history of the 1966 University of Texas attack. It happened   three decades before Texas allowed permitted concealed handguns anywhere in the state, let alone on college campuses.  The University of Texas also forbade the carrying of guns on campus, except with special permission. When the attack started, though, many people managed to retrieve their guns from their locked, off-campus cars.

The City of Austin and the State of Texas should be forever thankful and grateful to them who saved many lives that day. The sniper did a lot of damage as he could fire freely, but when the armed citizens started to return fire at the sniper, he had to take cover, to shoot out of the rains pouts and that limited his targets.

By Prakriti Neogi