WILLIAM BRANGHAM:

As the community gathered to mark the anniversary of one of the nation's first campus mass shootings, today also marked the very first day that concealed firearms will be permitted inside University of Texas buildings.

Last year, state legislators passed the so-called campus carry law, arguing that armed students might be able to stop the next mass shooting from occurring.

To talk about the university's commemoration, as well as how it's grappling with this new concealed carry law, I'm joined by Gregory Fenves. He is the president of the University of Texas at Austin. He originally spoke out against the concealed weapon bill, but now that it's law, he's implementing it on campus.

President Fenves, welcome.

First off, let's talk about today's memorial and commemoration. Why now? What is it you're hoping to accomplish with this memorial?

GREGORY FENVES, President, University of Texas at Austin: Well, it's been 50 years since the tragedy of the tower shooting.

Many of the survivors are getting on in age. And as we were preparing for this anniversary, sad anniversary, of this tragic event, we realized we had not adequately memorialized those 17 individuals that were killed on August 1, 1966.

And we wanted to do two things. We first wanted to bring some measure of healing and closure to the survivors and the many law enforcement heroes that came to the rescue that day.

But we also wanted to heal the campus. I think the campus had not given enough recognition to this tragedy. It is part of our history. It is a sad part of our history. So we wanted an appropriate memorial that would live on forever at the University of Texas to remember the events of 1966.

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