My POV

And so the killings began

On August 1, 1966, after stabbing his mother and his wife to death, Charles Whitman, a former Marine sharpshooter, took rifles and other weapons to the observation deck atop the Main Building tower at the University of Texas at Austin, then opened fire on persons indiscriminately on the surrounding campus and streets. Over the next 90 minutes he shot and killed 14 people (including one unborn child) and injured 31 others; while a final victim died in 2001 from the lingering effects of his wounds. The incident ended when police reached Whitman and shot him dead. As of February 2018, the attack is ranked as the eighth-deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Whitman had killed his mother and wife in their home the night before. It has been suggested that his violent impulses, with which he had been struggling for years, were due to a tumor found in his brain on autopsy.

Then this; The North Hollywood shootout was an armed confrontation between two heavily armed bank robbers and officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in the North Hollywood district of Los Angeles on February 28, 1997. Both perpetrators were killed, eleven police officers and seven civilians were injured.

The escalation of armament for police forces starts a national debate

In both examples the local police were out gunned. The availability of superior weapons was made easy by the American surplus stores. In the case of the North Hollywood shootout one assailant wore body armour while police were armed with 38 caliber revolvers and shot guns.

The cry went out for more protection for police, armored vehicles came next and then surplus army vehicles.

Then began the conspiracy theories that the government was arming itself for a coup and wing nuts went out and bought rapid fire multi shot weapons. The people began arming themselves against the government, nothing to do with self defense but more to do with paranoia and hysteria.

Now, after the Florida shooting the government and the NRA are once again “blame shifting” an FBI failure they said, a cop that failed to enter the school, arm and train teachers they say, better mental evaluations they say. All these things were said before and they are repeating them again and again.

There are hundreds of shootings that have occurred since the UT Tower shootings and still the US government is having a 52 year old discussion and doing nothing that will effectively change gun culture in America.