On July 12, 1976 Edward Charles Allaway, a custodian at the Cal State Fullerton library, shot nine people in the basement and first floor of the library with a .22 rifle. Seven of these died. California State University, Fullerton The California State University, Fullerton, often referred to as Cal State Fullerton, is a part of the California State University System located in Fullerton, California. ...

The shootings occured shortly before 9:00 am, when the library was scheduled to open for students. The victims were fellow employees of the library.

Allaway fled the building after the shooting to a nearby hotel where his wife worked. He called police and confessed to the shootings. Police picked him up and found the .22 rifle in the back of his car.

He was later found guilty of six counts of first degree murder and one count of second degree murder. However, a second phase of the trial determined that he was not sane. Five different professionals diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia. He had a history of mental illness. He was commiteed to the State mental hospital system, where he remains. Schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis denoting a persistent, often chronic, mental illness variously affecting behavior, thinking, and emotion. ...

Allaway's motive was that he thought pornographers were forcing his wife to appear in movies. His wife filed for divorce just before the shooting. The defense established that commercial pornographic movies were being shown by library staff members before opening and in break rooms, but Allaway's wife was not in them. Pornography (from Greek πορνογραφια pornographia — literally writing about or drawings of harlots) is the representation of the human body or human sexual behaviour with the goal of sexual arousal, similar to, but (according to some) distinct from, erotica. ...