From: [c d t] at [sw.stratus.com] (C. D. Tavares) Newsgroups: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh,alt.politics.british,uk.politics,talk.politics.misc,talk.politics.guns Subject: Re: Part 1 of 3: The Case Against Gun Control Date: 19 Oct 1993 21:10:32 GMT IF A GUNSHOT STOPS THE BAD GUY, IS THERE A SOUND? by J. Neil Schulman This is the story you saw on the evening news: At lunch hour on Wednesday, October 16th, George Jo Hennard of Belton, Texas smashed his Ford pickup through the plate glass doors of Luby's cafeteria in Killeen, injuring some patrons immediately. While other patrons rushed toward the truck believing the driver was a heart- attack victim, Hennard calmly climbed out of his pickup, took out two 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistols, and started shooting people in the cafeteria's serving line. Hennard continued shooting for ten minutes, reloading five times. One of his pistols jammed repeatedly, causing him to discard it. There would have been plenty of opportunity for any of the cafeteria's customers or employees to return fire. None did because none of them were armed. Texas law forbids private citizens from carrying firearms out of their home or business. Luby's employee's manual forbids employees from carrying firearms. Police officers were inside Luby's within minutes, but before they were able to corner Hennard in the cafeteria's restroom, causing the gunman to turn his gun fatally on himself, Hennard had killed 15 women and 8 men, wounded 19 more, and caused another 5 or so people to be injured attempting to flee. The Killeen massacre was ready-made excitement for the media: a madman with a gun, lots of gruesome pictures. CBS News ran a one-hour prime-time Dan Rather special on it. Sarah Brady of Handgun Control, Inc., capitalized on it in her syndicated column to call Congress cowardly for voting down more stringent gun laws the next day. Now here's a story you probably didn't see: Late at night on Tuesday, December 17th, two men armed with recently-stolen pistols herded twenty customers and employees of a Shoney's restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama into the walk-in refrigerator, and locked it. Continuing to hold the restaurant's manager at gunpoint, the men began robbing the restaurant. Then one of the robbers found a customer hiding under a table. Thomas Glenn Terry, legally armed with a .45 automatic pistol, fired five shots into that robber's chest and abdomen, killing him instantly. The other robber, who was holding the manager at gunpoint, opened fire on Terry. Terry returned fire, hitting the second robber several times and wounding him critically. The robbery attempt was over. The Shoney's customers and employees were freed. Aside from the would-be robbers, no one else in Shoney's was hurt that night. Because Thomas Glenn Terry was armed, and used his gun to stop two armed robbers who had taken a restaurant full of people hostage, there was no drawn-out crisis, no massacre, no victims' families for Dan Rather to interview. Consequently, the story hasn't received much coverage. Among those who rely on national news media for their view of the country, the bloody image of Luby's Cafeteria is available to lend the unchallenged impression that guns in private hands serve only to kill innocent people. The picture of twenty hostages walking out of Shoney's refrigerator unharmed, because a private citizen was armed that night, is not. In the month that we celebrate the bicentennial of the Bill of Rights, it's worth noting that the Framers wrote the Second Amendment so the people's defense would be in our own hands, and we wouldn't have to rely on a "standing army" or "select militia" for our security. Though no police departments existed in America then, there's no historical doubt the Framers had considered centralized public defense, and considered it not merely ineffective, but itself dangerous to public safety. Recent vigilante- type police attacks lend credence. Yet, it's fashionable to relegate constitutional protections to the dustbin of history. Judges sworn to defend the Constitution ignore its clear provisions, as do legislators and executives. Virtually every major organ of society -- from both parties, to media, to the ABA, to the ACLU -- urges them to do so. Today's "consensus reality" asserts that private firearms play no effective role in the civic defense, and that firearms must be restricted to reduce crime. The media repeat these assertions as a catechism, and treat those who challenge them as heretics, consigning them to the perdition of marginalization. Yet, we have before us an almost scientifically controlled experiment, showing us alternative outcomes. In case one, we have a restaurant full of unarmed people who rely on the police to save them. The result of the experiment is 23 innocent lives lost, and an equivalent number wounded. In case two, we have one armed citizen on the scene and not one innocent life lost. How can the choice our society needs to make be any clearer? It's time to rid ourselves of the misbegotten idea that public safety can be achieved by unilateral disarmament of the honest citizen, and realize that the price of public safety is, like liberty, eternal vigilance. We can tire ourselves in futile debates on how to keep guns out of the wrong hands. Or we can decide that innocent lives deserve better than to be cut short, if only we, as a society, will take upon ourselves the civic responsibility of defending our fellow citizens, as Thomas Glenn Terry did a few nights ago in Birmingham, Alabama. > The British have it right. 30,000 annual american deaths prove it every > year. The Mexicans have it even more right. They've banned ALL civilian ownership of guns. Unfortunately, their murder rate is even GREATER than that of the United States. I wonder what the connection is. -- [c d t] at [rocket.sw.stratus.com] --If you believe that I speak for my company, OR [c d t] at [vos.stratus.com] write today for my special Investors' Packet...