From the annals of brain-dead collecting.  The Remington 700 6mm rifle used by Charles Whitman to shoot some of the 17 people he killed in August 1966  in the UT Tower Massacre is up for sale.  For only $25,000 this piece of American mass-killing history can be yours.

According to the Houston Chronicle:.

“There is a pending offer on the rifle of over $25,000 right now,” said [Donald] Weiss, a gun collector in his own right. That offer is from an Orange man, Weiss said.Weiss has seen the weapon used at a North Texas gun range and confirms it is in working condition. The buyer likely would want the rifle for its historical significance, and not for its inherent morbidity, Weiss said. “I think that people who have an interest in this will be shooters or gun collectors. It will be bought for collector value,” Weiss says.

August 1, 1966 is a day I will never forget.  My father was at a travel agency on the Drag just about 30 minutes before the shooting began.  I was playing in the backyard with a friend when my Grandmother came out. “Someone’s taking potshots at people from the Tower.” Unfortunately they were not pot shots.  Whitman was a trained marksman and displayed it that day.  We watched the event unfold live on KTBC which had a camera trained on the Tower.  The Tower was turned from a place of majesty and pride into a fearful monstrosity that day by an insane egomaniac.

Quote from the Ballad of Charles Whitman by Kinky Friedman.