Dallas Morning News wire report

[jimlongley]

More Guns, safer schools?

The whole article is long, so I chose just to excerpt it here and post the link, but I couldn't find it online to link to.

The gist of it is that Eric Thompson, the gun dealer who sold a gun, in a legal transaction, to one of the recent "I'm going out with a bang and a flash." types, and sold a holster and a couple of magazines to another, is calling for guns to be allowed in the classroom. Of course Paul Helmke, of the Brady Bunch, says that even police officers only hit their targets 20% of the time, so why should we allow obviously less accurate civilians to even attempt to shoot straight.

I did forget to cite Mark Wilson - mea culpa.

My answer, below, but since one of my letters made it recently, I don't hold much hope to get it in the paper. I think the DMN has a one per month rule or something.


Mr. Helmke may be right, that in stress situations marksmanship suffers, but we have witnessed the alternative so many times now that his statement merely reinforces the point: Without some means of response, all of those students are merely targets in a shooting gallery, fish in a barrel, with no alternative but to mill around helplessly and die. And after all, with the lousy marksmanship that Mr. Helmke ascribes to the police, why do they still carry guns?

We also have the bright shining example of our CHL system, here in Texas, in place, at least in part, due to a massacre at Luby's in Killeen and the efforts of Dr. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, a victim of that crime. Dr. Hupp, first as a witness before legislative committees, and then as a legislator herself, saw to it that Texans at least have some chance in some places.

Yes, we could all wish that some John Wayne hero would pop up in the classroom massacre, saving everyone's lives with one well placed shot, but isn't the presence of one Caspar Milquetoast or Barney Fife better than no chance at all?

Jim Longley

Name and Address submitted.

[frankie_the_yankee]

Good job.

[tornado]

Thanks for pointing this out. I'll add some links.

UPI wire report http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2 ... mpus/7264/

NPR audio report (surprisingly balanced): http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... d=87792372

Mr. Thompson's statement: http://www.topglock.com/Article.aspx?AK ... _Statement

“The next news story I want to be involved in is how I sold a firearm to someone who helped prevent tragedy – not cause it.�

[jimlongley]

Thanks, Tonado, I didn't think to look for other sources, I just focused on the DMN page