When Whitman started shooting, UT students went to their vehicles to get their hunting rifles. This was at the behest of police on the scene who told people "If you have a rifle in your car, go get it". These civilians who retrieved their hunting rifles returned fire, keeping Whitman pinned down, which allowed the Austin police officer and civilian (who was also armed) to gain entry into the tower.JALLEN wrote:I have no idea what the law was, but I do recall an incident at Wurstfest in New Braunfels, probably in the late 60's-early '70's.
A man, likely drunk, was harassing folks arriving to park in the Knights of Columbus parking lot across the road from Wursthalle. Apparently he got too enthusiastic interacting with a woman in the passenger seat of one vehicle, and her husband shot him to death with a pistol taken from the glove compartment. The Grand Jury no-billed the husband. I would assume if having a weapon like that was illegal that would have been charged as well. There may be circumstances I'm not aware of, of course.
I also recall that when Charles Whitman started popping folks from the UT Tower, a bunch of guns came out and returned fire, ineffectively of course, until an Austin cop and civilian managed to sneak into the Tower and finish Whitman off. That was in 1966, IIRC.
When I was in high school, having a rifle in the rack across the back of a pick up was as common as boots. Nobody paid any attention whatsoever.
Without these civilians and their rifles in their vehicles, which were obviously parked on campus, Whitman probably would have killed more people as police would have not been able to gain entry as quickly as they did.