AUSTIN, Texas _ Claire Wilson James did not utter the words "campus carry" during her speech Monday.
Neither did anyone else who gathered at the University of Texas to mark 50 years since Charles Whitman killed 16 people and wounded James and dozens of others from a perch atop the school's clock tower.
But while the words went unspoken, the weight of the new law hung heavy. It was the day Texas' campus-carry law, which allows people to carry concealed handguns on the campuses of dozens of public colleges, went into effect.
The memorial ceremony wasn't about the new law, attendees said. It was about recalling scores of little acts of heroism. It was about collective mourning.
"It was moving. It was very lovely," James said after the ceremony, during which organizers unveiled a pink granite memorial bearing the names of the dead. James, eight months pregnant at the time, lost her boyfriend Thomas Frederick Eckman and her unborn baby.
Gesturing toward the new monument, and reflecting on the emotions it could evoke, James added bluntly: "I just hope it gets guns off this campus, and gets rid of campus carry."
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, was a student on campus the day of the shooting. He remembered having avoided Whitman's bullets by chance, taking a route across campus that avoided the open spaces where many were killed.
He urged those gathered to "never become callous to the loss we experienced here."
UT-Austin President Greg Fenves acknowledged that campus leadership did not do enough in the years after the shooting to support a grieving community. It tried to move on, he said, and too soon, in an ill-conceived effort to untie the campus from the tragedy.
"There's a proverb from ancient India that says, 'Before we can see properly, we must first shed our tears to clear the way,'" Fenves said. "I hope our community can collectively begin to shed those tears by remembering the tragedy of Aug. 1. 1966."
The issue of guns on campus dominated Fenves' day.
At a news conference before the ceremony, he reminded the college community of the campus-carry law's provisions. Open carry will remain illegal, those carrying concealed handguns must have licenses to carry them, and some areas are off-limits to all firearms, such as certain dormitories, faculty offices and the clock tower.
UT-Austin has been criticized by Republican lawmakers and other state officials for establishing so many gun-free zones _ the prerogative of each campus president _ but Fenves said he believes the school acted "within what we believe are the boundaries of the law."
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(Tom Benning contributed to this story.)
