Stampede

ON THE RIGHT

Once again, the emotional inertia of a grave tragedy is impelling many people toward logically unrelated action. The assassination of Mr. Kennedy, the acquittal of Beckwith, the attempted assassination of James Meredith, and now the killing in Austin, each resulted in calls —they were for the most part cries of the heart —for instant federal action of one sort or another, designed to prevent such ghastly occurrences. Charles Whitman, unstrung, climbed the tower of the University of Texas with a mediumsized arsenal and proceeded to do his best to decimate the population of the University of Texas. Whereupon President Johnson and Senator Dodd renewed their pleas for a federal measure designed to control the sale and distribution of firearms, and it is left to the imagination, preferably romantic, how such a control measure might have aborted the carnage in Austin.

ON THE RIGHT

Once again, the emotional inertia of a grave tragedy is impelling many people toward logically unrelated action. The assassination of Mr. Kennedy, the acquittal of Beckwith, the attempted assassination of James Meredith, and now the killing in Austin, each resulted in calls —they were for the most part cries of the heart —for instant federal action of one sort or another, designed to prevent such ghastly occurrences. Charles Whitman, unstrung, climbed the tower of the University of Texas with a mediumsized arsenal and proceeded to do his best to decimate the population of the University of Texas. Whereupon President Johnson and Senator Dodd renewed their pleas for a federal measure designed to control the sale and distribution of firearms, and it is left to the imagination, preferably romantic, how such a control measure might have aborted the carnage in Austin.