Shots fired at UT Campus...

[RPB]

Only took 5 minutes for sirens and alerts from the shots fired.

My eyes are too tired to count how many times this emoticon fires in 5 minutes. (or 30 minutes !!!)

Agreed:
"THIS is why we need to be able to defend ourselves in these "Safe" "Gun Free Zones"...

(I think you mean "target-rich zones") ... Exactly.

[aaangel]

armed citizen running into the PCL to stop the active shooter,

great way to get yourself killed by the active shooter or by the police. besides i'm sure he's not a CHL holder... UT campus is a "gun free zone".

[packingmusician]

As a student and TA at UT, as well as a law-abiding armed citizen, I hope this opens a logical discussion on the merits of legal self defense. It's time to pull the thumb out of their mouths and put down the blankey so people like us can defend ourselves from psychos like that.

Unfortunately, as the saying goes, wish in one hand, poop in the other....

[RHenriksen]

Friend of mine just tweeted he's locked down in PCL's 5th floor. Shooter killed himself on 6th floor. Second gunman still on the loose.

Any ID of the gunman? My brother works in the UT library...

[A-R]

I'm curious about the time frame of this incident, from the time a shooter was seeing jogging along the sidewalk with a weapon until he shot himself. It's great that no one was shot and it seems it was over with pretty quickly. Also, do the campus security police have weapons?

8:10 shots fired outside in front of tower
8:15 sirens and alerts go out
8:25 school on lockdown
8:40-ish shoots himself in library on 6th floor

So what you're saying is... the police didn't make it there in 30 seconds, and shoot the guy instantly...

In fact, he had 30 minutes of free reign on the campus, and would have had more, had he not decided to off himself.
That's 30 minutes on a campus that has it's own police force, on-campus...

Wake up people. The Police are only there to clean up the mess afterwords. Very rarely do they make it there on time to stop anything like this. THIS is why we need to be able to defend ourselves in these "Safe" "Gun Free Zones"...

The time line is correct, but as I understand it the extrapolation of how much time the shooter had "free reign on the campus" is a bit off. From the latest press conference, apparently responding police officers CHASED the shooter into the library building and were in active pursuit of him when he shot himself.

The police response - UTPD, APD, Travis County Sheriff, DPS, and even Austin ISD police - was apparently extremely quick and well executed. All these agenices had apparently just rehearsed emergency response inter-agency just a few weeks ago. Apparently, according to APD chief, first officers on scene directly engaged the suspect and gave chase immediately (as opposed to setting up perimeter and waiting for SWAT - as the old pre-Columbine custom). APD Chief was lauding the response not only of police, but also the UT alert system and the students themselves for doing exactly what they needed to do - clearing the streets/grounds and going or staying inside. He said UT students were actively pointing LEOs in the "right direction, toward the shooter" and gave much praise for their help with that as well.

I'm a UH Cougar. My wife is a Texas Aggie. But if all above is true (no reason to doubt it), my hat is off to the UT Longhorn students for a job well done under the circumstances And of course all the responding LEOs ... goes without saying, but I'll say it - true heroes, no doubt.

All that said, this was a PERFECT outcome because the shooter was apparently shooting randomly in the air and at the building and may not have been aiming at/targeting students. Even with this perfect response and outcome, the shooter still had at least 5-10 minutes (guessing) of "free reign". If his intent had been to kill as many as possible, this easily could've rivaled Luby's, Virginia Tech, Fort Hood, and the last UT shooting (1960s). 5-10 minutes is an ETERNITY when an active shooter is targeting victims.

[RPB]

well said austinrealtor.

I'm no mindreader, but his purpose may not have been to take victims, but to stop today's lecture. Nobody knows.
http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/artic ... k/19651855" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[elwood blooz]

Friend of mine just tweeted he's locked down in PCL's 5th floor. Shooter killed himself on 6th floor. Second gunman still on the loose.

Any ID of the gunman? My brother works in the UT library...

They gave his name on KTRH a moment ago but I missed it.

[miajaipi]

"More guns, less crime" lecture today by author John Lott.

I doubt that will happen

It looks like they found a different place to have the talk. Very suspicious timing. Almost like HCI/Brady planned it.

[O6nop]

Friend of mine just tweeted he's locked down in PCL's 5th floor. Shooter killed himself on 6th floor. Second gunman still on the loose.

Any ID of the gunman? My brother works in the UT library...

Statesman listed the ID as a 19-year old UT student, here is the link.

[RHenriksen]

Thanks!

[bnc]

"More guns, less crime" lecture today by author John Lott.

I doubt that will happen

It looks like they found a different place to have the talk. Very suspicious timing. Almost like HCI/Brady planned it.

That was my first thought. It is no different than those infiltrating the Tea Parties with racist/stupid signs to make the rest of the people there look bad.

[RPB]

Concerning the "timing" ... to contrast many Austin area TV station reports with a bias .... here is a good "less biased" article http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0928/ ... eapons-law" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

LOL
I've already gotten chewed out today by the few family members of another political persuasion than most of us on my own family e-mail group, just for mentioning the timing (moderated by my cousin who wrote this story about him covering the Charles Whitman Story in 1966)
UT tower gunman put an end to honeymoon
http://www.theparisnews.com/print.lasso?wcd=21847" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Monker10]

It's being reported that he was using an ak-47 automatic rifle. It can be quite difficult to get one of those using legal pathways. I am curious to find out if it was actually an ak-47 or just a semiautomatic clone. Media can sometimes be loose on the actual facts. Hopefully this will wake more people up that the students and facility need to have the means to protect themselves.

[NcongruNt]

It's being reported that he was using an ak-47 automatic rifle. It can be quite difficult to get one of those using legal pathways. I am curious to find out if it was actually an ak-47 or just a semiautomatic clone. Media can sometimes be loose on the actual facts . Hopefully this will wake more people up that the students and facility need to have the means to protect themselves.

I think you mean "consistently embellish or outright make things up". You'd be hard-pressed to find a news report (especially early in an incident) that doesn't make this fabrication. Remember when DPS started carrying AR/M4 rifles at the Capitol? The news continued to tout them as "High-Powered Rifles", even days after the initial reports started.

[ScottDLS]

It's being reported that he was using an ak-47 automatic rifle. It can be quite difficult to get one of those using legal pathways. I am curious to find out if it was actually an ak-47 or just a semiautomatic clone. Media can sometimes be loose on the actual facts. Hopefully this will wake more people up that the students and facility need to have the means to protect themselves.

Without even knowing the details, I can guarantee it was NOT a legally obtained full auto AK-47 variant. It is illegal to transfer a NFA registered full-auto to someone under 21. Also, the few registered AK's run $15,000 or more. Most likely it's just a semi-auto clone. The (since expired) 1994 "assault weapon" ban gave us the inaccurate and oxymoronic terms "Semi-Automatic Assault Weapon", "High Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device", etc. In mainstream new(s)speak any semi-auto rifle is an AK-47 "machine gun" and anything from a Glock to a Taurus pistol is a fully automatic Uzi. All have the capacity to "spray bullets". Oh yeah and Dad's over and under 12ga Beretta is an imported "Street Sweeper".