The Dallas Morning News Reports that the rifle used by UT Tower sniper Charles Whitman to kill 16 people and wound 32 more in August of 1966 is now on display at the Crime Museum in Washington, D.C.

“The Remington Model 700 rifle that Whitman used in the attack is on display at the Crime Museum in Washington D.C. Museum officials tout the acquisition as a valuable and educational addition to their collection. But victims of the attack like Claire Wilson James don’t understand displaying a macabre reminder of a horrific event.

“What kind of person wants to go and look at it?”, she said. “Why does somebody want to go look at something that did so much evil?”  Wilson James grew up in Dallas and is now a retired schoolteacher in Texarkana. She was 18 years old and eight months pregnant at the time of the attack. Whitman shot her in the stomach, killing her unborn child.

Janine Vaccarello, the museum’s chief operating officer, said that displaying the rifle furthers the museum’s mission of educating people about the history of crime and law enforcement.”

Red lived in Austin back then and his father left a travel agency on the Drag only a few minutes before Whitman began his heinous slaughter of innocents.  Red repeats, “Really?”

Image from and full story at  http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2014/12/dc-museum-displays-ut-tower-shooters-rifle.html/