“unfortunate coincidence”
In TX:
In an unfortunate coincidence, several student organization, including the Libertarian Longhorns, the UT Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, the UT Objectivism Society and the UT Federalist Society planned to host John Lott, author of the book “More Guns, Less Crime,” at the UT Law School.
A student there took a gun to the library today and shot himself. So far, appears to be the only casualty. He also fired several rounds from his “automatic weapon”.
Update: More coverage here.
September 28th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Weird, huh? My team in Austin thinks it’s more that somebody’s tofu was burned this morning and they were out of organic soy butter for his granola bagel.
I consider this a ‘dramatic suicide’. Keep Austin Weird.
September 28th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Clearly those “No Guns Allowed” signs were defective.
September 28th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
You call it an unfortunate coincidence. We call it a case in point.
September 28th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
My post on the shooting. (With a few updates.)
September 28th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Yet another anecdotal evidence why it is not only stupid, but evil to keep others unarmed.
September 28th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Other news reports say it was a “semi-automatic” weapon. The machine gun comments were third hand from people near the shooter. UT closed for the day. “Instant alert” took about 15 minutes from the time of the shooting. Good thing he was apparently shooting in the air and then offed himself.
September 28th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Local radio station KLBJ’s talk show this morning had live interviews of witnesses as the event unfolded. They beat TV by about 30 minutes with information on air. Their talk show hosts, including a retired Texas Highway Patrolman known as “Sergeant Sam” took calls from John Lott, who is in town to speak to the UT Students for Concealed Carry tonight, and from the 30 year old UT student who is leading that organization.
The general consensus on the show was that this is as good an example as one can have, of why adults with TX CHLs should be allowed to carry on campus legally.
September 28th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
“Shooting into the ground” says an attempt at suicide by cop.
Looks like the cops failed to arrive before he got to his last round.
September 28th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
No big deal stupid guy lost and the gene pool just got a little cleaner.
September 28th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
If you could please add an edit announcing that the John Lott event will be held at 6pm tonight at Brave New Books 1904 Guadeloupe which is just off campus.
September 28th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
ABC 13 KTRK in Houston (mis)reported it along the lines of “in an ironic twist, an advocate for guns on campus was to speak tonight, and that speech is still on, but it has been moved off campus.”
Many uneducated people (or rather, otherwise educated but ignorant of firearms issues) will draw exactly the wrong conclusion from this incident; It is exactly the reason why CHLs should be allowed to exercise their rights on campus, but the incident will be used as ammunition by the antis for keeping campus faculty and students 21 and up with CHLs disarmed.
September 29th, 2010 at 9:00 am
I woudl assume that the campus, and especially the library, are “gun-free” zones. Maybe the shooter just missed the no guns signs.
September 29th, 2010 at 9:17 am
I demand more no gun signs on college campuses! These criminals need to be warned that what they’re about to do is wrong….morally wrong too!
haha
I saw a news report where they called it an AK-47. Though I’m not sure what the shooter used, but can we get real and say an AK-47 clone or patterned rifle?
But in the world of fortunate consequences, my friend Rishi was supposed to be in that library yesterday morning, but his lazy ass slept in. I got the mass text in his “Sloth has saved me” alert.
September 29th, 2010 at 9:52 am
What gets me about this entire incident is how the police and the college are patting themselves on the back that no one got killed except the shooter.
According the the news reports in Dallas, the kids walked or ran all over campus, shooting into the air, but deliberately NOT targeting people. The station I watched last night interviewed four different people that came eye-to-eye with this kid and they were not shot. It took several minutes for authorities to arrive, by which time the kid had traversed campus, entered a building, found a hole, and shot himself.
Had this kid been interested in shooting people, the VA Massacre whoudl have been a footnote. The college was LUCKY and deserve little to NO CREDIT for saving lives.
September 29th, 2010 at 10:18 am
My poetry prof’s son was killed in the first Austin massacre. Armed citizens on the campus had a lot to do with containing and ending that spree. Anybody who used a search engine instead of the TV to get their news is going to find that out, and ask themselves whether they’re safer than they would have been 45 years ago. Have Stewart and Colbert, the ADHD Huntley & Brinkley, weighed in yet? The nation awaits.