For Richard - A follow up to Luby's Massacre

On March 3rd of this year I wrote a piece entitled "REMEMBER LUBY'S MASSACRE! - The Cost of Gun Control Laws". A week ago I received a new comment and request from someone personally touched by the shootings.  He requested I post the following video of Suzanna Gratia Hupp, a survivor who lost both parents in the shooting, testifying before Congress on the behalf of gun rights.  As this month marks the 19th anniversary of the shooting, I am happy to oblige.  Richard's comment is posted below.



Hi, Krystal,

There're two reasons I'm hoping you'll allow my comment and the link to the video of Suzanna Hupp's video of when she testified before Congress to be on your website. 1) No one can say it more clearly and flawlessly than Suzanna did that day; I believe God's blessing was on her, and no doubt it was straight from her heart; .. and 2) She addresses the matter you mentioned of anyone being able to jump the gunman while he was reloading. Anyone who believes that was possible doesn't have any experience with how fast and easy it is reload a clip.

My family and I used to love eating at Luby's cafeteria ( not the same one; we lived in the Dallas area ). It was a Sunday favorite and one of my favorite childhood memories .. other than now it's impossible to separate Luby's from this horrible incident.

Anyway, I think anyone interested in this story would be interested in hearing the story straight from this dear person's ( Suzanna's ) mouth.

Here's the link: [ http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4069761537893819675# ]

Thanks for your great writeup about this. You said so much in such a short space.

Richard



Peace Out,
~*~*~Krystal~*~*~

The Newest Up and Coming Annie Oakley

My baby girl, age 8, fired a gun today for the first time. I taught her. My husband taught our 10-year-old son to fire a gun today as well. I'm so proud!!! Our 14-year-old was also given his first gun, a pump action .22 rifle. It's a red letter day at our house!

Peace Out,

~*~*~Krystal~*~*~

State Plan Fines FEDS $2,000 over Gun Control

State plan fines feds $2,000 over gun rules
2 years in jail also possible for agent enforcing U.S. regulations on firearm

WOOT! WOOT!

Wyoming has joined a growing list of states with self-declared exemptions from federal gun regulation of weapons made, bought and used inside state borders – but lawmakers in the Cowboy State have taken the issue one step further, adopting significant penalties for federal agents attempting to enforce Washington's rules.

..."Any official, agent or employee of the United States government who enforces or attempts to enforce any act, order, law, statute, rule or regulation of the United States government upon a personal firearm, a firearm accessory or ammunition that is manufactured commercially or privately in Wyoming and that remains exclusively within the borders of Wyoming shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, shall be subject to imprisonment for not more than two (2) years, a fine of not more than two thousand dollars ($2,000.00), or both."

He said the issue is not only about guns but about states' rights and the constant overreaching by federal agencies and Washington to impose their requirements on in-state activities.

***State's Rights ... wasn't that was the War Between the States was about in the first place?***

"Laws of the federal government are to be supreme in all matters pursuant to the delegated powers of U.S. Constitution. When D.C. enacts laws outside those powers, state laws trump. And, as Thomas Jefferson would say, when the federal government assumes powers not delegated to it, those acts are 'unauthoritative, void, and of no force' from the outset," Boldin wrote.

"When a state 'nullifies' a federal law, it is proclaiming that the law in question is void and inoperative, or 'non-effective,' within the boundaries of that state; or, in other words, not a law as far as the state is concerned. Implied in such legislation is that the state apparatus will enforce the act against all violations – in order to protect the liberty of the state's citizens," he continued.

***Well AMEN! It's about time SOMEone was concerned with the liberty of the American people!***

On a blog, one commentator noted, "This is a healthy sign. Legislators in several states working to take back sovereignty and restore constitutional government. The next step that has to be taken is to replace representatives and senators who don't support states rights. Then, the House needs to introduce impeachment proceedings against Supreme Court justices who exhibit bad behavior. Contrary to popular belief, Supreme Court justices do not serve lifetime appointments. They serve for periods of GOOD BEHAVIOR. I contend that erroneous decisions constitute bad behavior."

Peace Out,

~*~*~Krystal~*~*~

Over 43 School Shootings AFTER the Gun Free School Zone Enacted in '91

Once again, Batman is to thank for the following post. He and Wonder Woman discussed a change in gun laws for the better in their March 5th edition of Friday Night Tidbits. The following was a comment I posted.

You know the other stupid gun law? Can't have a gun within 1,000 feet of a school. So, uh, when I'm picking my son up late at night from a school function I'm suppose to do stop 1,000 feet away from the school, hide it, then pick it up on the way back?!

I have to drive through dark woods with animals and wild dogs. What happens if my vehicle breaks down and I have to walk, in the dark, to get help and some crazed dog attacks me? And we have a lot of wild dogs out here.

I understand that they THINK they are making it safer somehow, but again, only law abiding citizens obey the law. Anyone wanting to shoot up a school is going to do it anyway.

Just ask the people from ...
Moses Lake, Washington
Bethel, Alaska
Pearl, Mississippi
Paducah, Kentucky
Stamps, Arkansas
Jonesboro, Arkansas
Fayetteville, Tennessee
Springfield, Oregon
Richmond, Virginia
Littleton, Colorado
Conyers, Georgia
Deming, New Mexico
Fort Gibson, Oklahoma
Mount Morris Township, Michigan
Savannah, Georgia
Lake Worth, Florida
New Orleans, Lousisianna
Baltimore, Maryland
Santee, California
Williamsport, Pennsylvania
Granite Hills, California
Gary, Indiana
Caro, Michigan
New York, NY
Tucson, Arizona
New Orleans, Louisiana (different school)
Red Lion, Pennsylvania
Cold Spring, Minnesota
Red Lake, Minnesota
Jacksboro, Tennessee
Essex, Vermont
Bailey, Colorado
Cazenovia, Wisconsin
Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania
Tacoma, Washington
Blacksburg, Virginia
Dover, Delaware
Cleveland, Ohio
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Memphis, Tennessee
Oxnard, California
DeKalb, Illinois
Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

That's 43 school shootings.

ALL of the above shootings took place between 1996-2009 ... well AFTER the 1,000 foot law went into effect.

See how well gun control laws work on people who want to, well, go on a killing spree?!

Peace Out,

~*~*~Krystal~*~*~

REMEMBER LUBY'S MASSACRE! - The Cost of Gun Control Laws

First, I'd like to thank BATMAN for his comment on my previous post, Changing the Culture with a Broad Notion of Gun Rights. He commented on a line from the article I posted. The line was in regards to restaurants which ban guns from being brought inside. His comment was, "In other words, open targets for criminals."

This comment jogged my memory all the way back to October 1991 and an incident that took place in Texas. It was called Luby's Massacre.

What was Luby's Massacre?

From Wikipedia, all emphasis mine:

The Luby's massacre was an incident of mass murder that took place on October 16, 1991 in Killeen, Texas ... when George Jo Hennard drove his pickup truck into a Luby's Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death while wounding another 20, subsequently committing suicide by shooting himself. It was the deadliest shooting rampage in American history until the Virginia Tech massacre.

On October 16, 1991, Hennard drove his 1987 Ford Ranger pickup truck through the front window of a Luby's Cafeteria ... then opened fire on the restaurant's patrons and staff with a Glock 17 pistol and later a Ruger P89. He stalked, shot, and killed 23 people while wounding another 20 before committing suicide ...

During the shooting, Hennard approached Suzanna Gratia Hupp and her parents. Hupp had actually brought a handgun to the Luby's Cafeteria that day but had left it in her vehicle because laws in force at the time forbade citizens from carrying firearms. According to her later testimony in favor of Missouri's HB-1720 bill and in general, after she realized that her firearm was not in her purse but "a hundred feet away in [her] car," her father charged at Hennard in an attempt to subdue him but was gunned down; a short time later, Hupp's mother was also shot and killed. Hupp later expressed regret for abiding by the law in question by leaving her firearm in her car rather than keeping it on her person. One patron, Tommy Vaughn, threw himself through a plate-glass window to allow others to escape. Hennard allowed a mother and her four-year-old child to leave. He reloaded several times and still had ammunition remaining when he committed suicide ...

***In other words, there would have been plenty of time while he was reloading for Hupp, or anyone else with a handgun to have shot him and prevented any more loss of life.***

Reacting to the massacre, in 1995 the Texas Legislature passed a shall-issue gun law, which requires that all qualifying applicants be issued a Concealed Handgun License (Texas's required permit to carry concealed weapons), removing the personal discretion of the issuing authority to deny such licenses.

As was quoted in my previous post, "The laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes." -- Cesare Beccaria, as quoted by Thomas Jefferson's

I was researching gun control and found an amazing article that is choke full of facts. I thank Benedict D. LaRosa for saving me a lot of time by placing all the information I was looking for in one indisputable, well researched, article. Can Gun Control Reduce Crime? The following are not direct quotes. The information he provided is intermingled with some of my own thoughts. In order to give credit where credit is due, I will italicized and highlight in yellow the information gleaned from LaRosa's work.

I wish we could all have a personal cop or body guard to protect us. Reality is that we don't.

Reality is that criminals
DO.
NOT.
OBEY.
THE.
LAW.
Thus making them CRIMINALS.

It is a PROVEN FACT that guns are used by citizens to STOP CRIME 60 times more often than guns are used to commit crime. 200,000 times a year a woman uses a gun to prevent a sexual attack. [“Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalence and Nature of Self-Defense with a Gun” by Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz, published by the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology at Northwestern University School of Law]

My sister and nephews are among those whose lives were literally SAVED because she had a gun. At eight months pregnant, she had two intruders in her home. Locked in her room with her 2-year-old, she grabbed the gun and fired a shot into the wall when they wouldn't leave (okay, she tripped on the cat and the gun went off, but the point is that the men didn't leave until they heard gun fire).

Of course people argue that it's SAFER to wait for the police and let THEM shoot. After all, they're better trained. Well, the problem with this argument is that it makes no sense! People with concealed weapons are generally gun enthusiasts who target practice. Not only that, but

1) the intended victim is up close and personal with the criminal, putting them at a closer range;

2) the criminal isn't running off, so it's not a moving target;

3) the intended victim has actually SEEN the criminal, whereas an officer is going off a mere description.

The truth is that in contrast to the police error rate of 11% for shooting an innocent person, the individual citizen has an error rate of only 2%. [“Are We a Nation of Cowards?” in the November 15, 1993, issue of Newsweek by George Will]

Theoretically, gun control laws could be partially to blame for the era of school shootings. You see, Congress passed a law in 1990 that prevented anyone from having a gun within 1,000 feet of a school. Columbine occurred in 1999. While we all know about Columbine, what ISN'T so well known is that another school shooting WAS PREVENTED in 1997 by Joel Myrick, an assistant principal. He used a gun to stop a violent teen who was shooting up his school in Pearl, Mississippi. He succeeded in preventing a massacre, but was prosecuted for having a gun within 1,000 feet of a school.

Imagine the difference of loss of life at Columbine if someone there had been armed!

To further prove that arming the citizenry PREVENTS crime and SAVES LIVES, after the Shall Permit law was passed in Texas, their crime rate, which was 38% HIGHER than the national average, DROPPED 50%!

I strongly encourage you to ARM YOURSELF WITH FACTS from LaRossa's two part article! These are just highlights from part one. If we are to protect our rights from ignorant people emotionally reacting to government instilled fear, we must arm ourselves with truth and facts with which to teach them.

You can't blame someone for being ignorant, for we are all ignorant of some things, you can only blame yourself for not educating them.

(Bumper sticker available HERE.)

Arm Yourself With Truth,"
For the TRUTH shall set you free!" - John 8:32~*~*~Krystal~*~*~

Changing the Culture with a Broad Notion of Gun Rights

"They're trying to change the culture with this broader notion of gun rights," said Clyde Wilcox, a Georgetown University government professor who has written a book on the politics of gun control. Gun Fans Cheer Starbucks' Policy

WHAT?!?!? Has this man NEVER read the 2nd amendment passed in 1791?! It isn't the gun right activists that are trying to change the culture ... it's the liberals!!

Let's see what a few of our American leaders from the time of the 2nd amendment and very inception of our great country had to say about people carrying guns with them, shall we?

I give a nod to Eric for his research in finding the following quotes.

Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
-- James Madison, The Federalist Papers

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed."
-- Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-188

Men trained in arms from their infancy, and animated by the love of liberty, will afford neither a cheap or easy conquest.
-- From the Declaration of the Continental Congress, July 1775

"As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives [only] moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun, therefore, be the constant companion to your walks."
-- Thomas Jefferson, writing to his teenaged nephew

False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.
-- Cesare Beccaria, as quoted by Thomas Jefferson's Commonplace book

Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defence? Where is the difference between having our arms in our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defence be the *real* object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?
-- Patrick Henry, speech of June 9 1788

That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United states who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms...
-- Samuel Adams, in "Phila. Independent Gazetteer", August 20, 1789

Let's see what a few others have to say about an armed citizenry ...

"Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of arms."
--Aristotle

Americans have the will to resist because you have weapons. If you don't have a gun, freedom of speech has no power.
-- Yoshimi Ishikawa, Japanese author, in the LA Times 15 Oct 1992

No kingdom can be secured otherwise than by arming the people. The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave.
-- "Political Disquisitions", a British republican tract of 1774-1775

The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to permit the conquered Eastern peoples to have arms. History teaches that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so.
-- Adolph Hitler, April 11 1942

"Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest."
-- Mohandas Gandhi, An Autobiography, pg 446

The people of the various provinces are strictly forbidden to have in their possession any swords, short swords, bows, spears, firearms, or other types of arms. The possession of unnecessary implements makes difficult the collection of taxes and dues and tends to foment uprisings.
-- Toyotomi Hideyoshi, dictator of Japan, August 1588

Keeping Peace With My Armory!

~*~*~Krystal~*~*~