The great equalizer.

In 1991,

[George Jo] Hennard drove his 1987 Ford Ranger pickup truck through the front window of a Luby’s Cafeteria at 1705 East Central Texas Expressway in Killeen, yelled “This is what Bell County has done to me!”, then opened fire on the restaurant’s patrons and staff with a Glock 17 pistol and later a Ruger P89. About 80 people were in the restaurant at the time. He stalked, shot, and killed 23 people and wounded another 20 before committing suicide. During the shooting, he 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 due to the laws in force at the time, forbidding citizens from carrying firearms.

Dr. Suzanna Gratia-Hupp testified before Congress, before a smug Chucky Schumer, and told her story:

The law prohibited her from carrying a firearms. In other words, the law prohibited her from defending herself. Consider that for a minute, will you? When a law is passed that prohibits you from carrying a weapon, it is inhibiting your ability to defend yourself. Should the government be in the habit of doing such a thing? You are told that you should depend on the police for protection. Where were the police when Hennard was shooting up Luby’s, when Columbine was being attacked, when Virginia Tech was being massacred?

Don’t misunderstand me on this. I’m not saying the police did anything wrong. I’m saying had the people who were there when it started been allowed to defend themselves, the violence might not have been as bad.

Recently, Texas Governor Rick Perry supported the idea of teachers carrying guns in school.

“I’m pretty much a fan that if you’ve been trained and you are registered, then you should be able to carry a weapon. Matter of fact, there’s a lot of instances that would have saved a lot of lives,” Mr. Perry said.

The governor is a staunch advocate of right-to-carry provisions and has advocated allowing licensed gun owners to carry them into places where they can currently be banned, such as college campuses, churches, bars and private businesses.

Some would find the idea abhorrent. I find it acceptable. As I have stated before, I want guns allowed everywhere. We need to fight back against the meme that guns kill.

It is difficult for me to understand how a population accepts laws that disarm them, that put them at the mercy of madmen and criminals. We need to instead return to the words of our Founding Fathers, in particular Thomas Jefferson, who said:

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

Jefferson understood that in the hands of a law abiding citizen, a firearm poses no threat to another man. Ironic that the party that Jefferson founded is the party most active in prohibiting the use of guns for self defense.

Hat Tip: Learn About Guns