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I would appreciate hearing your thoughts, and hopefully calming me down, in light of the media onslaught against firearms in the wake of yesterday's tragic killing in Arizona and the horrible wounding of a Congresswoman who was supposedly pro-2A. Specifically, how do you think this will impact things like the campus carry and parking lot bills? To me, yesterday's tragedy shows even more the need to be ready whenever, and wherever...but many will have and are currently trumpeting a different opinion across the national news media...you know that one politician said never let a crisis go to waste, well that is what they seem to be doing...how will it affect us here in Texas? And I'm looking for serious answers, not that the folks here aren't serious or anything...thank you in advance and my condolences to the families of those impacted.

I agree that yesterday's tragedy should be ammunition to put more legal weapon owner's and carriers on the streets.
Already however, this tragedy has put some great divides in the public news and on various social sites, where the left is blaming Palin and the left are pushing for more strict gun control laws - - to me, it would be crazy to restrict it; as we all know, if you ban guns, the criminals will still have them

A wise person should consider the outcome of any measures taken. Will any gun restrictions or arming the citizens help stopping such acts? If you look at this case, more gun control measures will not help.
In addition, this incident has nothing to do with concealed carry. On the contrary, All witness accounts says that it took forever for help to arrive when in fact help came within few minutes.

In short, this incident is a planned attack and the attacker(s) will have no regard to any law or gun control measure. Determined actors will gain access to firearms even in 100% gun-banned country such in UK. It will only cost more money.

One has to look at the fact that if law-abiding citizens are armed they would be able to use deadly force to stop the attackers. In this case, and due to close encounter to the shooter, jumping the shooter was faster and brave response when the shooter stopped shooting to reload. What if, the shooter retreated, reloaded and kept shooting? You would hope that some armed citizen would be brave enough to engage the shooter and shoot back until help is on the scene.

Again, 2nA has pro and cons and if the overall result is a benefit to the society and its individuals then it will be widely accepted.

Anti-gunners will try to profiteer on the blood of the victims, but it won't work either in Texas or at the federal level.

Chas.

What we have is more of a strong reminder that the Brady Bunch are still out there, waiting for anything to come their way....

@OP, good question - thinking same thing myself.

I'm trying to do my little part by countering uninformed or emotional statements I see amongst my Facebook friends. Many are journalists (as I once was) and tend to be liberal and reactionary to a fault - the "something must be done" type.

Thank you all for your replies so far...of course, it helps to know that I'm not the only one worried about this issue, and that Mr. Cotton has such solid conviction about it. Take care and good luck to us all...

I seem to remember the Luby's shooting spree did wonders for Tx CHL passage.

Briefly: Postings on other forums directly from Arizona indicate there's a lot of panicky commentary from state legislators, including picking up on the comments from the child's mother that "We have to protect the kids." Looks as if AZ is in for a tough few months over this.

OldSchool wrote:Briefly: Postings on other forums directly from Arizona indicate there's a lot of panicky commentary from state legislators, including picking up on the comments from the child's mother that "We have to protect the kids." Looks as if AZ is in for a tough few months over this.

so many DWI killed whole families in TX and I did not see a lot of panicky lawmakers screaming and yelling, not to draw parallel but lawmakers are scared to death because one of their own was targeted. What should be done if a public figure wants to do on the corner meeting with public, 2 or local PD officers is good security measure.

I'd expect the knee-jerk reaction to go after extended magazines. "Who needs a 30 round magazine for a pistol anyway?"

Beiruty wrote:

OldSchool wrote:Briefly: Postings on other forums directly from Arizona indicate there's a lot of panicky commentary from state legislators, including picking up on the comments from the child's mother that "We have to protect the kids." Looks as if AZ is in for a tough few months over this.

so many DWI killed whole families in TX and I did not see a lot of panicky lawmakers screaming and yelling, not to draw parallel but lawmakers are scared to death because one of their own was targeted. What should be done if a public figure wants to do on the corner meeting with public, 2 or local PD officers is good security measure.

Agreed, this should not compare to 40,000 killed every stupid year (and not because of lack of security devices -- how did people ever survive in the 50's?), but "a crisis is too good to waste."

Your post also brings to mind the SCOTUS decision that LEO's are not held accountable for protecting the lives of citizens (I wish I could find that decision for a reference), but there is full accountability when LEO's, Security, et al., fail to protect the lives of national figures. 'Nuff said....

Edit: Grammar.

I think we all need to keep this in perspective.

This was 1 man who made up HIS mind to commit this horrible tragedy. He is NOT indicative of the rest of us law-abiding citizens.

While it is our right to keep and bear arms, there are laws, both moral and statutory, that prohibit murder.

It would be a great injustice for anyone to extrapolate 1 person's deranged actions to a whole community. However, we know this happens all the time.

I have noticed that many in the US have become unwilling or unable to comprehend the meaning of "personal responsibility". The mantra of the "offended" is to blame one's problems on others - projecting onto others what should actually be personal.

This man, whoever he is, is personally responsible for his actions, unless others who can be absolutely proven to have aided and abetted him in furtherance of his actions, can be found.

I say to people who think that restricting the law-abiding citizen's rights to defend ourselves is warranted in light of the AZ events..."Don't go there."
Punish the evildoer(s) and leave the rest of us alone. Don't for 1 minute lump me in with him!

My prayers go out to Rep. Giffords family and the families of others killed or wounded by this man.

My hope is that he (and he alone) is prosecuted for HIS actions.
Let's force him to take personal responsbility and not have a wave of "shifted responsibility" riffraff blow his criminal dirt on us law-abiding citizens.

LabRat

Edit: Because I can't type well.

I think its worthwhile to note that this particular attack was stopped by civilians before the police could arrive. some brave folks stopped this attack. One can only speculate how many lives could have been saved if one of these had been properly armed.

I thought that one of the people who stopped the attack was a concealed license holder - but that he did not fire.

I could only imagine what would have happened if someone started firing back at the shooter... in a crowd. I think that would have been even worse. I'm almost *glad* nobody shot back at him - minimized collateral damage. I do wish it would have been stopped earlier though.