Posted on 09/17/2006 3:28:05 AM PDT by 2Am4Sure
Fifteen years ago next month, an armed man drove his truck through a Luby's restaurant in Killeen and opened fire upon the crowd, killing 23 patrons and wounding 20 others before turning the weapon on himself.
As a direct result of the Oct. 16, 1991, Luby's incident, in 1995, Texas lawmakers, led by Suzanna Gratia Hupp (whose parents were both killed in the massacre), passed a law that allowed Texans to obtain a concealed-carry handgun permit.
Concerns were raised that the new concealed handgun law would create more problems than it would solve, turning residents into armed vigilantes who would turn to weapons to resolve minor disputes.
For one Texan, that concern was not only unsubstantiated, but one that, to him, has been proven false time and time again.
"If everyone in this state qualified to hold a concealed handgun license," said Texas Department of Public Safety certified instructor Lloyd Leppo Jr., "no one would ever need a weapon in the first place."
To obtain a permit to carry a concealed handgun, one must be at least 21 years of age, submit a photo and fingerprints for a background investigation and pay a fee, pass both a written test covering laws pertaining to deadly force and gun safety and a shooting accuracy test.
Applicants also must be up to date on all student loans, must not owe back child support or taxes and must not have a Class A or Class B misdemeanor, or have been convicted of a felony.
"Citizens can rest assured that whoever holds a license has been investigated by every qualifying agency there is," Leppo said. "The cream of the crop in society is the only people who can qualify for a CHL in this state."
Obtaining a permit to carry concealed handguns in the state of Texas requires a 10-hour course during which residents learn about self-defense techniques, gun and child safety, and state laws regarding use of force and licensing requirements.
The course for obtaining a permit includes teaching applicants how to avoid the need to use a concealed firearm. When a criminal looks for a victim, he knows what he's looking for, Leppo said.
"Our goal is to teach people how not to be that victim," Leppo said.
According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, criminals decide that when the costs of committing a crime will be too high, they are less likely to commit it. The possibility of a concealed weapon tilts the odds in favor of the potential victim. Studies have shown that rape victims who resist with a gun are only half as likely to be injured as those who do not resist.
Leppo is not alone in thinking that the situation at Luby's wouldn't have escalated the way it did had the concealed handgun law been in effect.
Several Luby's patrons had weapons in their vehicles, including Hupp and Copperas Cove resident Kirby Lack. Lack, critically injured in the Luby's massacre, now holds a concealed handgun permit.
"I always carried it in my truck, but not on my person," Lack said. "I've always thought that if I had been allowed to carry a weapon on me, then things may have turned out differently for a lot of people at Luby's."
Lack said it was important enough to this country's forefathers to allow citizens to carry firearms, and he thinks it's still as important today.
"Just because you have a license, and have a gun on your person doesn't mean you have to use it," Lack said. "But having a bad guy know you're armed is a great deterrent to them."
The responsibility of having a license and knowing the laws that go along with it are stressed to applicants going through the course. "People need to know that being licensed carries with it a great responsibility," Leppo said. "The course also teaches the other side to carrying, and using, a concealed weapon."
I have to renew mine in December.
Get your paperwork in now and we can be CC Buddies!
It's on my to-do list, too...
I lost my dang holster, though. :-(
I think it should be required watching in every schoolroom in America.
Shooter 2.5 , if you have your Texas CCW permit I would like to invite you (and any other Freepers with CCW in other states), to apply in my state, for your NH CCW permit.
Very easy, $20 for 4 years.
Just download the from from here: http://www.nh.gov/safety/nhsp/plupr.html and mail it in.
Its a Nice-To-Have.
Thank you for the invitation.
The problem with Texas is it's so hard to get out of here. It always seems like it takes a day just to get to the border.
Correct.
I'm baffled by the statement that rape victims who resist with a gun are *only half* as likely to be injured as those who do not resist.
Say what?
You aim a gun at a potential rapist and he just keeps on coming towards you and you get injured? Why isn't he already dead?
I don't quite understand this. It's unsettling to know that having a gun only lessens your chances of being hurt by 50%. What am I missing?
Concerns are always raised when less stringent gunlaws are proposed. That is a strategy of the anti-gun element. Pro-gunners understand John Lott's premise: more guns, less crime. The antis know it, too. They have another agenda. It is the great unwashed who are swayed by sensationalism and fear. Those are the souls for which we are fighting. Unfortunately, the undereducated vote; and they vote on pure emotion, not thought. It is our job to educate them.
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