How Gun Control Left 23 Dead
In a matter of mere moments, the bustling, social hub in Killeen, Texas transformed into a bloody warzone at the hand of a deranged, coldblooded killer. What was once Luby’s Cafeteria became a mass grave that sunny October day in 1991.
50 shot. 23 dead. Hundreds robbed of a mother, father, sibling, or friend.
All of this despite the nation’s strictest gun laws.
Dr. Suzanna Hupp, a survivor of the shooting, is just one of the survivors who believes carrying a gun could have made a difference for her and her parents who were mercilessly killed.
“I reached for my purse… But then I realized that a couple of months earlier, I had made the stupidest decision of my life. I took my gun out of my purse and left it in my car because, as you well know, in the state of Texas it’s sometimes a felony offense to carry a gun in your purse,” Hupp lamented in a testimony before Congress.
Texas gun laws had left Hupp unarmed, unprotected, and unable to save her family.
In Texas, as in nearly a dozen other states at the time, citizens did not have the right to carry a gun in public. The New York Times reported, “Texas, despite its Wild West image, has been among this group since the mid-19th century, shortly after it entered the Union.”
Even so, George Hennard, the Luby shooter, managed to not only break the law by carrying two weapons illegally but also to slaughter nearly two dozen unarmed innocents.
Texas and nearly a dozen other states recognized this, which is why they took up efforts to revise their gun laws and allow responsible residents to carry concealed weapons.
Suzanna Hupp went on to testify before Congress on concealed handgun laws, and became a member of the Texas House of Representatives (image: youtube)
Rather than shouting partisan inaccuracies and politicizing a national tragedy, the nation chose to look at the facts, and the facts were clear: states that allowed citizens to have concealed carry permits were no more dangerous. In fact, many proved safer, including the state of Florida.
The New York Times acknowledged that, “Florida’s experience has generally provided strong arguments for proponents of the right-to-carry bills, including the National Rifle Association… Even those who opposed the measure said it had not led to the increase in violence they had feared… handgun-related homicides in Florida dropped by 29 percent from 1987 to 1992….”
But in the national response to Sandy Hook, the facts have been ignored. Instead, there has been a rash attempt to implement gun control legislation, much of which would have done nothing in the way of stopping Sandy Hook or Luby.
Like the nation did in the aftermath of the Luby shooting, we should pause to consider the changes we are seeking to make. Would they have truly made a difference?
Both the Luby and Sandy Hook shooters had nearly 15 minutes to execute their reign of terror, giving them plenty of time to pause and reload on several occasions.
How would limiting magazine clip capacity have averted their ruthless massacres?
As the left frantically tries to push through their anti-gun agenda while the time is ripe, reforms that could have actually made a difference fall by the wayside.
For instance, it’s clear both Lanza and Hennard had severe mental issues that were left untreated. Nearly a week before the Luby massacre, Hennard quit his job, mused openly about killing someone, and kept telling his co-workers “watch and see, watch and see,” People reported. And the day before the shooting, Hennard even exploded with rage and began screaming obscenities in a local diner.
Instead of buying into the left’s half-baked, insufficient gun control agenda, why aren’t we working with the mental health community to try and put together troublesome signs like these? Where is the push to expose and remedy mental illnesses in clearly deranged people?
There is no such push because the left has hijacked Sandy Hook as a justification for measures they have long looked to implement, and they have done this at the expense of true reform.
As the left tirelessly looks to implement strict gun control measures, now is the time for America to heed the words of Suzanna Hupp, lest we find ourselves with a tragic repeat in the long line of mass shootings: “My state has gun control laws. It did not keep Hennard from coming in and killing everybody. What it did do was keep me from protecting my family.”
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Comments (60)
hades3
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 7:02pmThe Dorner incident is proof police DO NOT have the ability too protect each and every individual.
Suppose the police departments were the unarmed average citizens, how would they have had the ability to pursue and face Dorner ? They would have NOT been able too do so. Like the unarmed citizen, they would have been sitting ducks for individuals such as he, plus there would have been no way too protect their spouses and children. As a consequence, their freedoms would have would
have been ripped from them. THAT is exactly what the anti gun wackos will, and are attempting too do.
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Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 3:09pmYou will never meet a victim of gun violence who doesn’t wish there was just One More gun in the room.
Where obama finds these fools to cite is a mystery.
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Ollie123
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 10:32amThey can pass a thousand laws to disarm the citizens, all we need to do is defy these unconstitutional laws, the one that stands above all other laws is in Our Constitution, 2nd Amendment , We the people have the right to bear arms, NO INFRINGEMENT, (period) end of conversation, now stand up for your rights or lose them!!!
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media-bias-steals-elections
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 7:12amHow many people are locked into their jobs by an education system that is geared to do just that, lock you into a job, with no chance for advancement? No problem you say, I’ll just get another job?
Good luck with that in the coming years where your life is guilty until proven innocent, where employers are catered to by employees expected to show up to work with wheel barrels full of cash to give them? Employee training? Who needs that?
How much of the job market chaos in America is caused by Democrat fat cats who game the system, telling the general public, tax the rich, then create these tax deffered, or no taxable income investment schemes? You can’t blame the public, you have to blame the law makers? You have to blame the law makers for part time hours and mandatory insurance policies for people that obviously can’t afford them?
$1 raise? Partime employment? Mandatory Health Care taxes? $6 a pack cigarrettes? Social Media spies everywhere? If they are going to black list you for being a smoker, or what ever else annoys polticians, are you going to be silent or are you going to make them work for it so hard, they stop thinking about doing it to anyone else, like the country was founded?
Did the founding fathers say to themselves, you know, this is never going to work, we need Kommy Care for 4 year olds, and college educations?
Mental health care starts with politicians actually caring?
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GodGunsandFreedom
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 1:23amThere is no control debate and here is why from my perspective…..
My daughter was kidnapped from me for 10 years by her mother and the mothers family. I spent those 10 years tracking them all over the America. I got my daughter back and she lives with me now. Not one person that was involved in that case will ever be prosecuted; I don’t hold any grudges against the judicial system or anyone. I am the first responder to protect my home, my liberty, my family.
I can sum up what the 2nd Amendment means to me in one sentence.
‘Armed you are a citizen, unarmed you are a subject!’
I will not have my rights taken away for some ill conceived agenda that will reduce my ability to protect myself or my daughter if any criminal attempts to harm my family.
The back of my jacket reads as follows ‘DUE TO THE PRICE INCREASE ON AMMUNITION…DO NOT EXPECT A WARNING SHOT ! Thank you for your understanding.
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Ollie123
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 10:26amlove it!!
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sinner-saint
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 11:28pmAll the liberal marxist comminist progressvie idiots in the country as well as all the uneducated, uninformed people of this country have a real mental problem/illness their thinking is backwards. truly mentally ill folks.
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CommonSenseTalk
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 9:20pmStart understanding the Truth, gun control is not to stop crime but increase government power. You can never have a dictator in office until all you citizens are unarmed. This is a progressive step towards complete government control. The sooner you understand this, the sooner you understand what progressive means. They slowly progress towards their goals. You have to give credit to the Democrat, progressive, liberal. These guys are very good at taking away your rights and freedoms and making you think that they are doing you a favor.
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banjarmon
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 8:46pmPoliticians want gun control because they are afraid of Free people with guns!
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