Texas gun fund-raiser nothing to laugh at

By: Jim Mosher - Commentary | Friday, June 17, 2005 9:21 PM PDT ∞

Gail Chatfield ("Putting the fun back in fund-raising," June 6) dismissed a school's rifle raffle fund-raiser in Lampasas, Texas, as just a quaint custom of the unenlightened country folk in out-of-the-way rural communities. Of course, cars and sports memorabilia are also desired items in Red State America. Then again, if you look at the electoral map, there's a lot of Red even in the Blue states.

Firearm raffles are popular venues, a vestige of the American pioneering spirit of independence and self-reliance. Not long ago, a Colorado bank offered a premium grade bolt-action rifle to customers opening a certificate of deposit. In California, dozens of Friends of NRA dinners are held annually that raffle firearms to raise money for gun safety education, range development, hunter education and youth rifle programs. However, if Gov. Schwarzenegger signs SB 357, a "handgun" ammunition registration scheme floated by the social elitists in the Legislature, even .22-caliber rifle ammo will be hard to find here.

But, back to Lampasas: State Representative Susanna Hupp, who donated the Kimber rifle in the Hanna Springs Intermediate School fund-raiser, is the author of the Texas "shall-issue" concealed carry law. Mrs. Hupp was motivated by a life-changing experience. She met her parents for lunch at the Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, on Oct. 16, 1991, the day George Hennard drove his pickup truck through the restaurant's front window, produced a pistol and deliberately shot customers one by one. He murdered 23 people, and then committed suicide when cornered by police. At the time Texas law did not allow concealed carry and Susanna Hupp's unloaded self-defense handgun was locked in her car. She watched helplessly as her father and mother were shot to death.

Violent crimes have dropped dramatically in the Lone Star State since then-Texas Gov. George Bush signed Hupp's concealed carry legislation in 1995. According to FBI figures, the 38 states with laws that allow their citizens to carry concealed handguns for self-defense average 24 percent less violent crime and 22 percent less murder than states like California that severely restrict right-to-carry. It is probably the per capita concealed carry permit count in Lampasas that cools the predatory urges of the community's registered sex offenders.

Chatfield referred to the ongoing Government Accounting Office investigation that seeks to determine how 44 persons on the FBI's Gang and Terrorist Organization File watch list were legally able to purchase guns.

This begs the larger issue of how these folks ---- foreigners with rap sheets ---- got into the country in the first place.

School fund-raisers are an ongoing reality, whatever the prize on the raffle ticket. Government funding can never be totally relied upon, since so much of the bureaucratic budget is devoted to self-perpetuation. It's terrific that as Americans we still have the freedom to choose how we participate in the educational process.

It's also somewhat disappointing that some who profess cultural diversity and freedom of expression don't always practice what they preach.

Jim Mosher is communications director of the San Diego Rifle and Revolver Association.

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