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Mass Shooting Vs School Shooting

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Columbine and Virginia Tech were definitely two of the biggest, but not one of the first mass shootings on school grounds. On August 1, 1966, a mass shooting took place at the University of Texas. A 25 ex-marine named Charles Whitman, who majored in architectural engineering, murdered his mother and wife that morning. Whitman climbed on top of the UT Tower and started firing. “The crime scene spanned the length of five city blocks… and covered the nerve of what was then a relatively small, quiet college town.” “Hundreds of students, professors, tourists, and store clerks witnessed the 96 minute killing spree as they crouched behind trees, hid under desks, took cover in stairwells, or, if they had been hit, played dead” (Pamela Colloff). Pamela Colloff stated that the gunman “introduced the nation to the idea of mass murder in a public space.” Charles Whitman had shot a total of 43 people, killing a total of 13 people. An Austin police officer shot and killed Whitman before he could do anymore harm.
The shooting was arguably the worst thing to happen in UT history. The school had tried to eradicate the memory of this horrible attack, but was unsuccessful. 33 years after the murders took place, Larry Faulkner, the 27th president of the University of Texas at Austin, agreed to set up a place behind the tower to remember and honor the ones who died on August 1, 1966.
All of these attacks on school grounds could’ve been prevented by upgrading security and being more strict with

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