Unless we’re talking about Holocaust denial, historical revision is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if we’re talking about historical myths being used for political purposes. And I clearly laid out the evidence that civilians firing from the ground did more harm than good. You can take that or leave it.
I don’t think I ever said the M1 Carbine was the only gun that he used, and pointing out that some of his kills were at a greater distance than 200 yards (the weapon’s max effective range) doesn’t necessarily disprove the thesis that having high-round magazines made the incident more deadly—or that the M1 Carbine played a crucial role in his plan to achieve maximum fatalities.
With all due respect, you being there doesn’t necessarily make you more qualified to answer these questions. I interviewed close to 30 sources in 2006, including eyewitnesses, people who were shot, Neal Spelce, Gary Lavergne, as well as officers McCoy and Ramirez. I also read tons of archival documents.
The only way to know for sure which weapon was used in the most killings is to look at all the coroner’s reports and see which slugs were recovered. That stuff is not online and I’m not going to do that for a Medium story, but if you want to, have at it. I’ll gladly issue a correction if you can find it.
It was more than a decade ago that I did all this, but I do recall hearing witnesses say that in the early stages they remember hearing shots in rapid succession. You can make of that what you will.
He timed it to be up there when classes changed and there would be a huge crowd on the Main Mall, so it makes sense that he would use the carbine at that point.
He obviously thought the carbine was vital to his planning. The police report that is available online showed he was packing six 30-round clips as well as one 15-round, which is nearly twice the number of Remington rounds he had. He had a total of six or seven rifles propped up in the water spouts on all sides, and he was carrying the carbine with him as he moved back and forth between them.
Excluding the three people he killed on the way up, the most concentrated area of fatalities is this cluster immediately in front of the Tower, which is less than 100 yards away. Why would he use the Remington there?
At roughly 200 yards, Guadalupe is pushing the limits of the weapon’s effective range, but plausible.
This is all moot anyways. It doesn’t at all take away from the thrust of what I’m arguing here. The Tower Massacre was peculiar for a lot of reasons. Because of his skill, Whitman could have been pretty deadly just with hunting rifles, but I don’t think he would have killed as many. Having a high-capacity magazine is much more essential for mass murderers today who are just firing wildly into crowds as fast as they could pull the trigger.
I can concede that maybe it’s overstating things for me to say it was his “main weapon.” He was quite flexible and creative. My basic point still stands. Again, if you still live in Austin and you want to take a trip to the archives, you’re welcome to try and prove me wrong. I’d be interested in knowing what you find out. I love me some documents.
