You Will Shoot Your Eye Out

The week’s dominant story began on the night of March 1, when Ndiaga Diagne, a 53-year-old Senegalese immigrant, opened fire with an AR-pattern rifle at Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden near the University of Texas-Austin campus.

He killed two people and wounded more before Austin police engaged and neutralized him in under a minute. The attack immediately sparked two parallel debates: whether it should be classified as terrorism, and whether Texas’s “51% rule”—which prohibits concealed carry in establishments that derive more than half their revenue from alcohol sales—left patrons defenseless in a predictable target.

The FBI acknowledged “indicators” of a potential terrorism nexus but stopped short of labeling it an act of terrorism outright—a response that drew criticism from gun-rights commentators.

TTAG’s Scott Witner argued that Diagne almost certainly chose the location deliberately, knowing lawful carry would be prohibited inside. Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers, led by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), pivoted immediately to calls for stricter gun control laws rather than addressing the attack’s possible terror dimension—drawing sharp rebukes from the gun-rights community.