Feature: A tough mission for Texas to curb school shootings

On Aug. 1, 1966, a graduate student climbed the 27-story tower at the University of Texas at Austin and opened fire with an arsenal of weapons, killing 15 people and wounding 31 before police killed him.

Architectural student and ex-Marine Charles Whitman used three rifles, two pistols and a sawed-off shotgun to gun down innocent victims in what was the first school mass shooting in U.S. history.

The massacre - the deadliest shooting on a U.S. college campus until the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 that claimed 32 lives - forced Texas officials to rethink school security. The changes that followed the UT killings, official say, have helped to prevent another mass shooting in the state.

"After the (UT) massacre, Texas took a proactive approach, putting law-enforcement (officers) on campus and allowing school districts to commission their own police officers," said Eugene Lewis, a retired police chief at three Texas school districts - Galveston, Alvin and North Forest in Houston.

Other states in the U.S., however, have not fared as well as Texas. In 1999, students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold gunned down their classmates and teachers at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., killing 13 and wounding 20. And in 2012, Adam Lanza opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., killing 20 children (mostly first- and second-graders) and six adults.

The Sandy Hook massacre remains the deadliest mass shooting at high school or grade school in U.S. history.

"I don' t think schools are doing enough to stop a mass shooting," said Kathy Bongio Amato, whose two daughters attended public schools in Galveston and La Marque, Texas. "With that said, you never know when someone is going to 'snap' and decide to shoot up a school. I' m glad I didn' t have to worry about this so much when my girls were in school but now I have to worry about them as adults."

To be sure, Texas schools have not been immune from campus shootings. But the recent school shootings have been targeted attacks, where the assailant knew and went after the victims. Fortunately, Texas has not has had a mass shooting since the UT killings in 1966.

Also helping to curb campus shootings, officials say, is a Texas law that took effect Aug. 1, 2016, that allows individuals with a valid concealed handgun license to carry their loaded, concealed weapon in college and university buildings.

On Sept. 9, 2016, in West Texas, a 14-year-freshman shot and wounded another female student in a restroom at Alpine High School before killing herself, authorities said. In the confusion that followed, a U.S. Marshal accidently shot a Homeland Security agent. Alpine is about 200 miles southeast of El Paso, Texas.

Other Texas schools have been scenes of sporadic gun violence as well. In October 2015, one person was killed and another was injured when a gunman opened fire outside a dorm at Texas Southern University in Houston. In January 2013, two people were shot after an argument ended in gunfire outside Lone Star College-North Harris. The shooter fled into the woods and was arrested hours later.

In January 2012, a student opened fire at North Forest High School in Houston, wounding a 16-year-old bystander in the leg. The shooter told investigators that he had been bullied by three students and he shot in self-defense. And in March 2011, multiple gunmen opened fire during a powder puff football game at Worthing High School in Houston, killing a former student and injured five other people.

Curtis Clay, outgoing deputy director of the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University in San Marcus, credits the state's proactive law-enforcement efforts with preventing another mass shooting in the state.

"We've been fortunate that we haven't had a random shooter go into a K-12 campus," said Clay, a Texas schoolsafety consultant. "There was an incident in Wimberley ISD about five years ago where someone had planned a school shooting, but because of the rapport and connection that (school) staff had, the plans were thwarted."

Texas City resident Felicia Rios Poteet, whose two children graduated from public schools, said she's not convinced that there is a solution for school shootings.

"After Columbine I was scared everyday sending my children to school," said Poteet, who works as a nanny. "I thought well when they get to college it will get easier. Virginia Tech changed that real quick because then I had to worry about it when they went to college.

"I still have to worry about my children in the workplace, and on the street driving to work," she said. "I don' t know that there is more that the schools can do to protect our children short of posting armed guards at every entrance. Do we want our children going to school in a police state? I sure would not want my future grandchildren to have to do that."

The penalties are stiff for school shootings. Aggravated assault is a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to 10,000 dollars. A person found guilty of murder faces a prison sentence of five to 99 years to life, and a fine up to 10,000 dollars. Capital murder, meanwhile, carries a penalty of life imprisonment or death. Endit