The Reckoning

March 30, 2016 12:23 PM

Claire Wilson was eighteen years old and eight months pregnant when the path of her life was changed forever. Single link Texas Monthly.
posted by Bee'sWing (22 comments total)

twigger warning: cheesy lame clock tower sound effects synced to the mention of same in article.
posted by Fupped Duck at 12:37 PM on March 30, 2016 [5 favorites]

And no apparent way to make it stop. Gah.
posted by maryr at 12:39 PM on March 30, 2016

Whitman’s crime—decades before Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Newtown became shorthand for on-campus depravity—was unprecedented, and there was no language for it yet.

No, it wasn't.
posted by ryanshepard at 1:05 PM on March 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Serious non-jokey content warning, this article discusses in detail - shootings and the injuries they cause, death of loved ones and the death of a child.
posted by FritoKAL at 1:27 PM on March 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

These things have been happening for a long time.
posted by Bee'sWing at 1:35 PM on March 30, 2016

That was a really engaging read. Thanks for posting.
posted by bleep at 1:35 PM on March 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

Fascinating, thanks.
posted by unknowncommand at 1:41 PM on March 30, 2016

That was an important read. Thank you.
posted by thegreatfleecircus at 1:49 PM on March 30, 2016

Wow. That's a very intense read. Thanks for posting.
posted by iminurmefi at 1:55 PM on March 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

Very well done and worth reading.
posted by Sassenach at 2:46 PM on March 30, 2016

It seems really well written, but as a professor in a state where campus carry could be signed into law any day now, I just couldn't get through it.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:55 PM on March 30, 2016 [5 favorites]

Dang.
posted by resurrexit at 3:22 PM on March 30, 2016

The part where her adopted son turns out to have the worst kind of bipolar disorder. vallis lacrimarum.
posted by radicalawyer at 4:10 PM on March 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

These things have been happening for a long time.

I had heard of the Bath School attack before, but not this. That may be the oldest American example, but there are much older examples from Malaysia where they gave it the name amok.
posted by dragoon at 5:35 PM on March 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

No it wasn't

These things have been happening for a long time

Even in Texas.

The whole open carry movement pisses me off, but forcing it upon UT (my alma mater) seems spectacularly tone deaf. I fear we are one presidential election away from descending into Somalia level anarchy and becoming the most spectacular failed nation in history.
posted by TedW at 5:48 PM on March 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Hydropsyche If you couldn't make it to the end then I suppose you missed the part where Texas's campus carry law will go into effect on the 50th anniversary (yes, to the day) of her shooting.

That is a special kind of sick, right there. Words fail me.
posted by telepanda at 6:27 PM on March 30, 2016 [11 favorites]

I was engaged all the way through. This is an important voice to hear in the gun control debate and a story well told. Nineteen students killed in school shooting engenders little empathy that one can understand or wrap around. Telling stories like this make us understand that these are people like us, with all the same struggles and aspirations and in an instant their lives are forever changed in a coldly insane act of violence. And that violence is carried, changes the people forever who are doomed to carry it with them, grieving the senseless hole in their lives forever. Think of Claire's affecting story and multiply it by a thousand.

Texas's campus carry law will go into effect on the 50th anniversary (yes, to the day) of her shooting.

I think we are finally at the point, thanks to the insane actions of the gun lobby, where there can be no reasonable compromise. I do believe there are responsible gun owners but the number of them that remain silent makes me believe that their "right" to their guns is plainly not worth the cost and whereas I used to hope we could regulate this as a civilized society, now I just want all the guns gone. This is where they've taken the fight, and I am fucking ready for a fight.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:44 PM on March 30, 2016 [16 favorites]

What makes Texas Monthly the go-to publication for true crime longform?
posted by creade at 9:05 PM on March 30, 2016

A thought occurred to me: Whitman's main rifle was a bolt action hunting rifle of modest caliber. Probably close to the very last firearm to be banned under an increasingly strict gun control scheme.
posted by Harald74 at 1:42 AM on March 31, 2016

The thought that he was actually aiming for the baby is the most upsetting thing.
posted by Hazelsmrf at 2:42 AM on March 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

Quietly haunting. I feel like I know her.
posted by thesmallmachine at 8:49 AM on March 31, 2016

I pushed myself to read it. What an amazing person she is and what a fascinating life she has led. Another great detail just kind of slipped in there is that on August 1, 1966, when the shooting began, students ran to their trucks and grabbed their own hunting rifles to fire back. None of them were successful at taking Whitman out, and in fact, both armed students and armed cops were shot before two officers successfully shot Whitman.

From the very beginning, it has been clear that the idea of "good guys with guns" stopping campus shooters, supposedly the justification for campus carry laws like the one passed in Georgia, is a foolhardy idea. Also, holy shit, he had 8 guns and 700 rounds of ammunition. From the very beginning, it has been clear that the best way to prevent such a thing is to find a way to keep people from taking 8 guns and 700 rounds of ammunition to campus.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:05 PM on March 31, 2016 [8 favorites]