Posted on 12/31/2008 10:18:01 PM PST by Kaslin
One minute, Suzanne was eating lunch with her mother and father. The next, the happy hubbub of the restaurant was silenced when a pickup truck crashed through the brick, mortar, and glass. How could that happen? The driver emerged, but Suzanne noticed he wasn’t dazed or drunk; he was angry and purposeful. Then, she saw the guns. He stepped over the debris and began to shoot patrons. She must be dreaming. Her father leaped to his feet, charged the gunman, was shot, and fell to the floor. When the gunman turned his back to shoot others, she remembered: she had a gun! Where was it? She had to find her gun! Oh no, it was in her car. She crawled, then ran toward a window to escape, to get her gun, and to return to save her mother. Was it only a nightmare?
Tragically, for Suzanna Gratia Hupp and scores of others, the murder and mayhem on October 16, 1991, at Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas—60 miles north of Austin—was real: 23 men and women were murdered in cold blood; another 20 were wounded in the deadliest killing spree in American history. (The killer turned one of his two weapons upon himself when cornered by the police.) Dr. Hupp, a chiropractor, had indeed brought her gun to Luby’s that day; however, it was illegal then to carry a concealed weapon in Texas. Despite the admonition of a friend, “Better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6,” she feared losing her license if she violated the law. Instead, she lost both her father and her mother; she had thought her mother would follow her through the window, but her mother had returned to comfort her dying husband and had been murdered. Dr. Hupp blames herself to this day.
As a result, Dr. Hupp became one of the Nation’s leading advocates for concealed carry permits; in fact, at her urging, in 1995 the Texas Legislature adopted a “shall-issue” gun law requiring all qualifying applicants to be issued a Concealed Handgun License. In 1996, she was elected to the Texas House of Representatives, then traveled the country giving personal testimony why States should enact concealed carry laws. Most recently, she filed a friend of the court brief when the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of Washington, D.C.’s ban on handguns for personal safety, District of Columbia v. Heller
One of the states that enacted the law advocated by Dr. Hupp was Colorado, which, in 2003 created statewide standards for issuing concealed carry permits, adopted a narrow list of exclusions—locations prohibited by federal law; K-12 schools; public buildings with metal detectors; and private property—and prohibited local governments from enforcing any contradictory laws and policies. Despite the Colorado General Assembly’s intent to supplant local rules as to concealed carry, the Regents of the University of Colorado refused to withdraw their 1994 policy barring concealed carry on CU’s campuses throughout the State.
The massacre that killed Dr. Hupp’s parents was the deadliest shooting rampage in American history, that is, it was until the Virginia Tech Massacre of April 17, 2007, when 32 were killed and 17 wounded. Subsequently, on February 14, 2008, a gunman killed 6 and wounded 18 at Northern Illinois University. Little wonder, therefore, that students on CU’s campuses in Boulder, Denver, and Colorado Springs—who have a license to carry concealed weapons almost anywhere else in Colorado—wish to exercise that right in what, in their view, is one of the most dangerous settings they will encounter: “a gun-free zone.”
Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC), a national advocacy group with over 30,000 members that supports the legalization of concealed carry by licensed individuals on college campuses, agrees. Last month, SCCC, two CU students and a recent CU graduate filed a lawsuit in Colorado state court seeking a ruling that CU’s policy is illegal and unconstitutional!
I agree with conceal and carry. It will make a very pollite society very quickly.
My Dad always told me “I’d rather come bail you out of jail, than identify you at the morgue.” I carried a concealed handgun way before my State had a conceal law.
oldie but a goodie....
“I would rather be judged by 12..
than carried out by 6”
Also ....... Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
So true of guns and fire extinguishers.
The 2nd Amendment is my ‘concealed carry permit’.
The laws have gotten far stricter and more potent about unlicensed weapons. I, for one, would probably be thrown in jail for years if I was caught with and unlicensed weapon. Just ask Compean and Ramos.
I don't know if Luby's served beer or wine (I kind of doubt it), but even though we have a concealed carry law here in SC, we are prohibited from carrying into any place that has a license to serve alcoholic beverages on premises.
That means that if we choose to eat out at anyplace other than a burger joint, we become fish in a barrel.
It seems to me that if the state recognizes an individual's right, and his need to have the means available to defend himself, then they assume total responsibility in places where they restrict him from having those means.
I'm waiting to see a test case where someone gets assaulted in a Pizza Hut, and sues not the restaurant, but the State of South Carolina. I'm sure they would never win, but it would be interesting to see how the state argues the case.
Here in Texas, restaurents that do not get at least 51% of thier revenue from alcohol can be carried in. So most places that are primarily an eating establishment can be carried in. A tavern that serves snacks and burgers,etc. cannot. I think that is fair for the most part.
Those two HEROES just had the misfortune to serve under a President more dedicated to creating the New World Order of his father's dreams than he was to upholding the spirit of the US Constitution. This would never have happened under Reagan. A disheartening example showing the outcome when a commander in chief is more concerned with being an ally than with being an American.
That's the exact situation here in Florida. I don't drink on a regular basis -- last night was my first and last probably for the next five months or so until I'm 52. So when we go out to TGI Fridays and sit in the restaurant I'm legal. Had I been out last night instead of home watching crazy New Yorkers freeze their buns off on my tv waiting for that ball to drop (while it was nice and warm here in Miami) I'd definitely NOT have been carrying.
That's one of several ironclad rules I live by:
#1NEVER mix alcohol and gunpowder!
I like the concept that anyone can shoot anyone else for anything. Sure we will lose 5% right off the top, but after that everyone will be very polite to one another as they understand that although you can shoot anyone, the rule also applies against you.
Why do you think that is fair?
Just because you are in an establishment that serves alcohol does not mean YOU, the carrier, must drink.
Ever watch cops or bouncers break up a really mean brawl between drunks? They have all manner of weapons-tasers,guns,pepper spray etc. and yet use them proportionately.
These alcohol/gungrabber laws are nothing more than "guilty until proven innocent". There is alcohol, ipso,ergo, and therefore guns are bad, bad, bad, unless you are military or police.
Deeply flawed logic all the way around.
Best regards,
Link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2156730/posts
Best regards,
I love asking the question “Do you own a fire extinguisher?” in response to the question “Why do you need / have a gun?”
I know for sure that the Univ of Chicago, the Univ of IL at Chicago, Northwestern Univ, and IL State Univ (ISU) are all open. And unless you are in 'The Quad', you may as well be in Timbuktu. I took special note of this last spring when our youngest daughter graduated from ISU (B.S.Ed) and we went on a road trip through 'the campus' the night before.
One one street there'd be a Dorm (campus), across that street would be a Private Residence. And the "Campus Parking Lots" were spread all over the dang place - 'campus', not 'campus'?). Even the Gym Complex that held the ceremony was across the street from Private Residences, with some Frat Houses mixed in. (Campus?)
So. How can you have a "Gun Free Campus" when for all intents and purposes - there is NO "Campus"? And I'm sure those fine folks down in Normal, IL had a shotgun, a rifle or two, and some handguns in those Private Residences: 'on campus'. /s
exactly.
Why should anyone other than a trained medical professional have a first-aid kit?
First-aid kits don't replace doctors, any more than personal defensive firearms replace police. A first-aid kit is designed to keep an accident victim alive until medical professionals can render aid; a personal-defense firearm does likewise for a crime victim.
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