As we try to understand the motives of Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas massacre shooter, more than one commentator has brought up the 1966 bell tower shooting incident at the University of Texas.
Just as Paddock shot his victims from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel, Charles Whitman was high above his targets on the Austin campus.
For those who don’t recall the incident, Whitman was just 25 when he opened fire for 96 minutes, killing 15 and injuring 31 that day.
You can go into the personalities of both Whitman and Paddock, but that’s all speculative.
Like Paddock, Whitman was considered highly intelligent. The former Marine, who had been attending UT on scholarship, had gone into a tailspin from bad grades and gambling issues. Paddock too seems to have had a gambling habit. It’s just part of the puzzle for investigators.
What’s more instructive is how we as a society have reacted, especially when it comes to passing laws and regulations to make our campuses, and society in general, safer.
