Aug. 3, 1966: Days after UT shooting, politicians wonder how to prevent future mass killings
Prevent #Prevent
J.R. Gonzales, Staff Writer
Aug. 3, 2022
Houston Chronicle front page from Aug. 3, 1966.
Chronicle file
Two days after a gunman killed 14 people from atop the University of Texas tower, politicians at the state and federal level were looking to keep a similar attack from happening again.
Texas Gov. John Connally cut short of tour of Latin America and returned to Austin after the shooting. After arriving he called a meeting of the state’s top law enforcement officials to discuss the massacre.
The Chronicle reported he called the talks “in hopes of preventing a recurrence” of such shootings in Texas in the future.
In Washington, D.C., senators, urged by President Lyndon Johnson to come up with legislation “to help prevent the wrong persons from obtaining firearms,” faced roadblocks in their efforts to draw up gun regulation measures.
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J.R. Gonzales, a native Houstonian, is a web producer for HoustonChronicle.com. Before that, he was a news copy editor. Since 2006, he has overseen the Bayou City History blog, which covers various aspects of Houston’s history.
Prior to joining the Houston Chronicle, Gonzales worked as a night cops reporter at The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., and later as a copy editor. He has also worked as a courthouse reporter for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Gonzales is a journalism graduate of the University of Houston.