New Book Now Available
From Luby’s to the Legislature
One Woman’s Fight Against Gun Control
The mass shooting at Luby’s Cafeteria in Central Texas made
news around the world and turned an unknown chiropractor into a national
champion for the right of ordinary citizens to carry guns for self-defense.
Suzanna Gratia, then 32, was having lunch with her parents at the
restaurant in Killeen that day in October 1991 when a man crashed
his pickup through a window and began shooting people. When the shooting
stopped, her mother and father were dead along with 22 other people,
including the shooter.
No one was interviewed more about that shooting than Suzanna Gratia
Hupp (her married name). She became an icon for gun rights and the
Second Amendment because she was not afraid to be interviewed by
the news media and because she told them what they did not expect
hear. She did not blame the shooter – how can you blame a rabid
dog? – and she did not blame guns. She blamed politicians who
had legislated away her right to carry a gun to protect herself and
her family.
No one has had more to do with passing the rash of state concealed-carry
laws that swept the country in the 1990s allowing ordinary law-abiding
citizens to carry handguns for self-defense. She has told her story
to the national media and has testified before Congress and numerous
state legislatures. She served for 10 years in the Texas Legislature.
Now she has put it all down in a memoir entitled From
Luby’s to the Legislature: One Woman’s Fight Against
Gun Control.
Hupp recounts how guns have affected her life – from playing
with cap guns with her brother to filing bills in the Texas Legislature
to allow students with concealed carry licenses to pack guns on college
campuses. The latter has become a hot topic following the shootings
at Virginia Tech.
She tells what happened on October 16, 1991 at the Luby’s
Cafeteria and how it affected her and her family. She recalls making “the
stupidest decision” of her life when she decided several months
before the shooting to stop carrying a revolver in her purse in case
she was caught and lost her chiropractor’s license. That decision
left her unarmed at the time she most needed her gun.
This
Book Could Save Your Life!
The new Fifth
Edition of The Concealed Handgun Manual contains
more than 500 pages and is packed with advice and information for
anyone who carries a concealed handgun for protection or is thinking
of doing so. It includes many actual incidents of ordinary citizens
using handguns to defend themselves against criminal threat or
attack.
The first chapter compares the shooting at Virginia Tech with
other school shootings that were successfully stopped by armed or unarmed
teachers or students. The second chapter includes the illegal gun confiscations
from law-abiding citizens in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Other
subjects that are being addressed for the first time in The
Concealed Handgun Manual include laser sights for handguns
and insurance for concealed-carry license holders. The reciprocity
information in the last chapter has been completely revised and updated.
America’s Secret:
Effective Self-Defense with a Gun
One of the best-kept secrets in the United States is how often and
how effectively ordinary citizens defend themselves with firearms
against criminal attack or criminal threat. Criminologists estimate
that each year about 2.5 million ordinary people in the U.S. use
firearms in confrontations with criminals. In the vast majority of
cases, not a shot is fired, and frequently the incidents are not
reported to the police.
“The bias of the mainstream media against portraying guns
in a positive light results in these incidents remaining below the
public’s radar,” said author Chris Bird. Thank
God I Had a Gun: True Accounts of Self-Defense lifts
the veil surrounding the defensive uses of guns by recounting in
detail fourteen of these incidents. The Foreword was
written by Suzanna Gratia Hupp, former Texas State Representative,
District 54.
Privateer Publications is a publishing house in
San Antonio, Texas, dedicated to providing responsible information
to those interested in firearms, shooting, and self defense. Author Chris
Bird is a director of the Texas
Concealed Handgun Association and teaches the training
course for the Texas Concealed Handgun License.
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