GUNS: Control is the real killer

Mass shootings occur in gun-free zones. They occur in schools, churches, shopping centers and in other gun-free public areas rather than at gun shows or around police stations where large numbers of firearms — and people who know how to use them — are known to be. In his article in USA Today, “Opposing view: Guns in schools can save lives,” Dec. 25, 2012, John Lott Jr. writes: “With just one exception, every public mass shooting in the USA since 1950 has taken place where citizens are banned from carrying guns. Despite strict gun regulations, Europe has had three of the worst six school shootings.”

On October 16, 1991, 32 year-old Dr. Suzanna Hupp was dining with her parents at Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, when a man named George Hennard crashed his pickup through the front window of the establishment and shot 44 people, killing 24 including himself. As the incident was unfolding Suzanna reached for her gun in her purse when she suddenly remembered having left it locked up in her car to avoid violating a concealed weapons law. Her parents were both killed by the gunman, but she believes that if she had access to her handgun in that moment she could have saved many lives.

The tragedy at Ruby Ridge in 1992 that claimed the lives of Vicki Weaver, her 14-year-old son Sammy, the family dog plus a federal agent would never have happened without a certain 1934 national firearms law.

JIM BALLOU

Hayden